2G trial: Witness tutored by CBI, defence tells court

Cross-examination of key CBI witness in the 2G case, Aseervatham Achary, by senior advocate Sushil Kumar, who is defending former Telecom Minister A Raja, resumed after a week’s break at the special CBI court, in Delhi, on Monday. Achary, the former additional private secretary to Raja, denied the defence’s claim that his decision to leave the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MOC&IT) was because Raja did not support his ambition to join the Congress. “It is incorrect to suggest that I spoke to Raja to help me in procuring a ticket of the Congress Party for the 2009 general elections, as his party (DMK) was an ally of the Congress. It is incorrect to suggest that when Raja declined to help my case, I decided to leave the ministry,” he told the court. [caption id=“attachment_170404” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Sushil Kumar had once before during cross-examination confronted Achary. Reuters”] [/caption] Achary also denied claims by the defence that after he left the ministry he became a source for the Pioneer newspaper, which was the first to report on the 2G scam. “I do not know if after October 2008 (which is when Achary left the ministry), the Pioneer started publishing stories on the 2G spectrum case. It is wrong to suggest that when I left I had unauthorisedly collected some material from MOC&IT,” Achary told the court. Denying the claim by the defence lawyer that he (Achary) had become a source for the CBI in October 2009 (when the investigating agency lodged an FIR in the 2G case), Achary told the court, “It is incorrect to suggest that I was in contact with the CBI from the date of the registration of the FIR itself.” Achary was then asked to go through a marked passage from a book authored by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy titled ‘2G Spectrum Scam’ that made references to a certain ‘Ashirvatham Achari’. Sushil Kumar had once before during cross-examination confronted Achary with references to him in the same book (Read ‘2G trial: Achary is a false, created witness, defence tell court). Sticking to the response that he had given the last time, Achary told the court that he “cannot tell as to whom the author was referring to.” There were heated exchanges between the defence and the public prosecutor following Sushil Kumar’s repeated claims that Achary was a ‘tutored witness.’ The CBI counsel raising objection, called it a ‘wild allegation’. Concluding his cross-examination Sushil Kumar told the court that Achary was made a witness by the CBI only after the investigating agency could not find anything to connect Raja with the other accused in the case. The senior lawyer further claimed that Achary was unhappy with Raja for not promoting him in politics. He told the court that it was under pressure from the CBI that had threatened to charge Achary with a disproportionate assets case that he became a witness. Achary denied all the claims. “It is wrong to suggest that for these reasons I chose to become a false witness against him for the prosecution. It is wrong to suggest that I am deposing falsely,” Achary told the court. SP Minocha, advocate for Siddharth Behura, former Telecom Secretary and accused number two in the case, turned the heat on Achary up a notch. He began by cross-examining Achary on his statements in court during examination by the CBI counsel on 19 December, the first day of his deposition as a witness. Minocha read out a series of statements that Achary had made in court but had not mentioned in his statement recorded by CBI in March 2011. The defence lawyer told the court that these ‘improvements’ by Achary to his CBI statement were made 0n directions of the CBI. Denying the claim, Achary told the court that he “might have forgotten to mention these facts” when the CBI recorded his statement in March. The gloves were clearly off. The defence told the court that Achary’s ‘purported’ March statement had been ‘formulated’ by the CBI and attributed to him. And that Achary accepted it because he was threatened by the CBI of being arrested as RK Chandolia, former private secretary to Raja, had been. Cross-examination of the witness was adjourned to Tuesday after the witness, a diabetes patient, complained of tiredness due a dip in his sugar levels.