Incensed Swamy slams 'bad' SC judgement on Chidambaram

Incensed Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy slammed the Supreme Court verdict that dismissed his petition against Finance Minister P Chidambaram to be made a co-accused in the 2G scam, saying it was a ‘bad’ judgement that did not address his arguments.

“The portion that was read out in the judgement was not what I had argued. In my petition I had only sought to prove a national loss, but the judgement was based on criminal conspiracy”, Swamy told reporters outside the court shortly after the verdict was read out.

Swamy added that he had not been allowed to complete his argument in court, and had been asked to provide a written submission instead. But he argued that these submissions seem to have been ignored in the court verdict.

“This is a very bad judgement. I will get a copy and read the full judgement for myself, and I will file a review petition”, he said.

He also said that unlike lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who had sought a probe against the Finance Minister by the CBI, he believed there was enough evidence against Chidambaram.

“I believe there is no need for more investigation. There is enough evidence against Chidambaram,” he said.

The Supreme Court verdict had dismissed Swamy’s petition, saying it had considered all the material on record and concluded that there was no deliberate act or abuse of position by Chidambaram, in relation to the 2G scam. It added that there was no case or evidence that could sufficiently infer criminal conspiracy between Chidambaram and A Raja.

The judgement also said a mere meeting between the Finance Minister and the former Telecom Minister could not be extended to mean that a conspiracy was afoot, and had also questioned allegations by Swamy that he had bestowed undue favours to two telecom companies.

Meanwhile the Congress party welcomed the judgement saying that it only vindicated their stand that the Finance Minister was innocent.

“The matter should now be allowed to abate,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, adding that he hoped it would also help in the functioning of the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the scam.

The court on 24 April had reserved its order on whether to issue a notice to Finance Minister P Chidambaram on a plea filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, seeking to make him a co-accused along with former telecom minister A Raja in the 2G pricing case.