2G live: Raja looks pleased with progress of cross-examination

11.58am: Court has been adjourned for ten minutes. Raja looks pleased with how cross examination has gone so far.

11.15am: Witness Mathur is being cross examined about the TRAI recommendations of 27 October, 2003. The recommendations stated that bidding process may not be preferred for fixing benchmark of entry fee for migration to unified access licensing regime.

10.55 am: Raja tells court that while the witness remembers all the file notings, he doesn’t remember national policy, which as a telecom secretary he should have been well aware of. As tempers rise, judge tells defence not to speak in a loud voice inside court.

10.47 am: Raja’s lawyer loses cool after witness Mathur says he doesn’t remember if the government’s key objective was to increase teledensity. He says, “I am discrediting this witness 100 percent. He cannot hide behind, ‘I don’t remember’.” Raja, meanwhile, tries to calm his lawyer down.

10.45 am: Raja standing next to his lawyer assisting in the cross examination of Mathur. The former telecom secretary is being cross-examined on government’s policies regulating telecom licenses and entry fees.

10.30 am: Raja’s lawyer Sushil Kumar begins cross examination of key prosecution witness Mathur at special CBI court.

Examination of the former telecom secretary Dinesh Shankar Mathur by the CBI counsel on 2G Spectrum case continued on Monday.

Mathur, on Monday told a Delhi court that he had warned his former boss then telecom minister A Raja that preponing cut-off date for receipt of new applications for Unified Access Services Licences may be considered ‘arbitrary and it may give rise to legal complications later on’.

The order to that effect came out on 2 November 2007. The first fixed date was 1 October 2007 but preponed to 25 September later on.

When asked to react on Mathur’s statements, Raja, as he was leaving the court of Special CBI judge OP Saini said, “I am the accused. It is for you see. Tomorrow you will run headlines saying ‘Raja trapped’.”