Chidu relieved, Delhi court dismisses Swamy's plea in 2G case

In a huge relief for Home Minister P Chidambaram, a Delhi court today dismissed a petition by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy seeking to make him a co-accused in the 2G spectrum case.

“Your prayer to make Chidambaram an accused is dismissed,” Special Judge O P Saini said on Swamy’s petition reading out from his much-awaited judgement. The court said it will commence the hearing on the complaint filed by Swamy in which he had made further allegations against former Telecom Minister A Raja without making Chidambaram an accused from March 17.

Reacting to Saini’s verdict, Swami said the the court’s judgment is not a setback as he will now move the high court. He said he can talk in detail about the judgement only once he has gone through it. “I am not disappointed because its a part of the game, journalist might be disappointed,” said Swami as soon as he got out of the court.  On whether he would gather more evidence against the home minister, Swami told Firstpost  “Till now we were relying on the evidence we produced in court. Let me go through the order to see if we need more preparation.”

He insisted that he has a “very very strong case” both against Chidambaram and A Raja, the main accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, and that he will challenge the decision in High Court. He said the Supreme Court had said earlier that a trial court’s decision could be challenged directly in the apex court and that he would examine this option as well.

In its judgment on Thursday in the 2G spectrum case, the Supreme Court cancelled the licences of 122 companies which were given during the tenure of former telecom minisiter A Raja.  The Supreme Court  also observed that the prime minister had differed with A Raja on the pricing of spectrum and raised doubts over giving  spectrum at 2011 price. A Raja, however, had  ignored the prime minister’s advice.

However, the Supreme Court left the issue of Chidambaram’s involvement in allocation of 2G spectrum, to be decided by the trial court.

The Supreme Court had also refused to direct the CBI to investigate the home minister as argued by Swamy. The judgment was seen as a 48-hour breather for the home minister.

Since the Supreme Court order, the opposition has been demanding Chibambaram’s resignation. On his part, special judge O P Saini, on January 21, had reserved the order for today.

Swamy’s argument was that Chidambaram was co- accused with former Telecom Minister A Raja in deciding the spectrum pricing and giving the 2G spectrum to companies at throwaway prices.

Prima facie there was evidence to prove that in the capacity of finance minister, Chidambaram had committed offences under the prevention of corruption act, Swamy had pleaded. He had also alleged that as the telecom ministry cannot overrule the finance ministry, A Raja could not have moved ahead without the consent of Chidambaram, the  then finance minister.

Swamy emphasized that despite acknowledging that the 2G auction did not take place in a transparent manner , Chidambaram did not oppose Raja’s decision of allocating spectrum at 2001 prices.

 Watch video: Special CBI Judge OP Saini said that no case can be made out against Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.