2G scam: Raja to depose before the court to defend himself

New Delhi: Former Telecom Minister A Raja has told a special court that he wishes to depose as a witness to defend himself in the ongoing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. “The applicant (Raja) wishes to examine himself as a witness in the present trial,” Raja told Special CBI Judge OP Saini in his application for summoning defence witnesses in the case. [caption id=“attachment_1506155” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A Raja. Agencies.[/caption] Besides this, Raja has also sought summoning of SE Rajan, his former personal assistant, as a defence witness saying Rajan would depose regarding the events and meetings held at the former telecom Minister’s official residence. He has also sought to summon concerned officers from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Department of Telecom and Ministry of Law and Justice in his defence. “Permit the applicant to examine himself as a witness,” Raja said, adding, “issue summons to the witnesses as mentioned in the list of witnesses above (in his application).” Apart from these, he also sought summoning of documents relating to debates in the Lok Sabha on 26 November, 2007, 22 February, 2010 and 21 February, 2011 respectively. He has said in his application that these documents would “rebut the allegation of conspiracy between the accused persons and to deal with the issue of alleged loss to the exchequer caused by grant of UAS Licenses and allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008”. Raja also requested the court to summon the text of press statement given on 7 January, 2011 by Kapil Sibal, the then Minister of Communication and Information Technology, on the issues related to 2G spectrum and also the 12 April, 2012 Presidential Reference made to the Supreme Court. “Issue directions to the witnesses to bring along the documents mentioned in the list of documents,” he said. The Centre on 12 April, 2012 had moved the apex court with a Presidential Reference for its opinion on issues arising out of its 2G spectrum judgement including whether auctioning of natural resources across all sectors is mandatory and the verdict be given retrospective effect for radio waves granted since 1994. Raja, in his application, said that examination of the witnesses and tendering of documents were essential for establishing his defence as also for the just decision of the case. Besides Raja, some of the other accused in the case have also filed their list of defence witnesses. Raja is facing trial in the 2G case along with DMK MP Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja’s erstwhile private secretary RK Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and Reliance ADAG executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair. Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in the case. Besides these 14 accused, three telecom firms Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd are also facing trial in the case. The court had on 22 October, 2011 framed charges against them under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe. The offences entail punishment ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment. PTI