Former telecom minister A Raja’s lawyer on Monday told the court that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was a party to all the decisions taken in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation.
He, however, clarified that he was not making an attempt to present Chidambaram as an accused.
“I am not calling P Chidambaram an accused but he knew everything. He was acquainted with all facts and circumstances of the case,” he said.
Raja’s lawyer also said that the statement of the home minister should have been taken in September 2010 itself.
Earlier on Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed fresh charges in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam, seeking life imprisonment for all the accused.
Till now, the charges against the accused could have led them to a maximum imprisonment of seven years.
Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit filed an application before Special CBI Judge O P Saini, saying a case of criminal breach of trust under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code is “certainly made out” against Raja, his former private secretary R K Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura.
The CBI plea said besides Raja and two former officials, all others, including DMK MP Kanimozhi and three telecom firms should be charged under section 409 (criminal breach) read with 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
“It is submitted that accused 1, 2, and 3 (Raja, Behura and Chandolia) were public servants having a dominion over valuable 2G spectrum in their respective capacities as public servants,” said the CBI application.
“The said accused public servants in pursuance of conspiracy with other accused dishonestly disposed of the valuable 2G spectrum illegally and in violation of the existing policies and the eligibility criterion in order to confer wrongful gain on accused no 4 (Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa), 5 (Vinod Goenka), 6 (Swan Telecom), 7 (MD of Unitech Sanjay Chandra) and 8 (Unitech Wireless Tamil Nadu Ltd),” the CBI told the court.
“Thus, accused Raja, Behura and Chandolia have committed an offence punishable under section 409 IPC and all other accused have committed an offence punishable under section 409 read with section 120 B IPC. With the cognisance of this court (they) should be charged accordingly,” the application said.
Earlier, all the accused were slapped with cheating and criminal conspiracy charges. Raja was additionally charged with forgery.
In another related development on Monday, the hearing of Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy’s application, pleading for Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to be made an accused in the 2G case, was deferred till October 12.
Swamy expressed hope that his petition in Supreme Court asking for a CBI probe against Chidambaram would be decided by then.
