Court's decision to call witnesses against Chidu on Dec 8

New Delhi: A Delhi court will decide on Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy’s plea to examine witnesses — including senior CBI officials — to establish erstwhile finance minister and present Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s role in the 2G spectrum allocation, on 8 December. Special CBI Judge OP Saini reserved its order on Swamy’s plea seeking impleadment of Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum allocation case. Swamy sought Chidamabaram’s impleadment, saying the decision on spectrum pricing was taken jointly by him and former Telecom Minister A Raja. In an application to the court, Swami sought its permission to examine some witnesses, including senior CBI officials, to establish Chidambaram’s alleged complicity in the scam. [caption id=“attachment_147231” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The decision on whether to call witnesses to testify against the former finance minister will be made on 8 December.”]  [/caption] “Prima facie few things are clear that both the (then) Finance Minister P Chidambaram and (former Telecom Minister) A Raja had jointly taken the decision on pricing of 2G spectrum. Therefore, the charges framed against A Raja have to also be framed against P Chidambaram and the process for it should be initiated,” Swamy said. The court reserved its order for 8 December on Swamy’s plea for summoning and examining some witnesses to prove his case against Chidambaram. Swamy said that the official documents given to him by the CBI following the court’s order establish that four meetings took place between Chidambaram and Raja in which decision was taken to keep spectrum prices at 2001 level. “Four meeting took place between the two ministers. It is on record that the then Telecom Minister and the then Finance Minister met for deciding the spectrum pricing and it (document) says that Finance Minister said that prices of 2001 shall not be revisited,” he said. Swamy also referred to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement, which said the then Finance Minister had consulted with Raja and the two ministers worked out on agreed formula on pricing of spectrum. He also said Raja had recorded on a file and a press note that the then Finance Minister had permitted the sale of licenses to foreign companies, Etisalat of Dubai and Norway’s Telenor despite both the firms being under the Home Ministry’s scanner. “The two companies, Swan Telecom and Unitech sold their shares to Etisalat and Telenor respectively. They were under the scanner of the Home Ministry and the Home Ministry had recommended that these two companies should not be allowed to do business in India,” he said. The Janata Party chief said Chidambaram “failed to protect national security” by not informing the authorities that Etisalat and Telenor were “genuine” companies. PTI