The former Telecom Minister, Mr A. Raja, today pleaded before a court that the then Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, be made a witness in the 2G spectrum case and also said he has not sought to implicate the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Home Minister in the matter.

The 47-year-old DMK MP, who is behind bars for nearly six months, also sought his “forthwith release” terming his judicial custody as an “illegal detention’’.

Mr Raja’s counsel Mr Sushil Kumar made the submissions before Special Judge Mr O.P. Saini while opposing the framing of corruption and other penal charges against him for his alleged role in the scam on the second day of arguments.

Seeking a direction to CBI to make Mr Chidambaram a witness in the case, Mr Raja said the former Finance Minister was privy to the matter relating to dilution of equities by Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless to foreign firms, Etisalat and Telenor, respectively.

“The matters relating to dilution of equities to foreign firms by Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless were known to the Prime Minister and then Finance Minister Chidambaram,” Mr Raja said.

The former Telecom Minister clarified that his statement yesterday about Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Chidambaram being aware of the dilution of shares by telcom firms did not amount to making any allegation against them.

“I am defending myself and not accusing anything against anybody. I am not after anybody,” he said.

“I did not seek to implicate the Prime Minister and the then Finance Minister in the 2G case,” Mr Raja said while attempting to shift the blame on media.

“They (media) cannot put words in my mouth. Ask them to report truthfully or go out of the court room,” he said.

In the USA, the court proceedings are telecast live and the whole nation watches them to avoid such a situation, Mr Raja said while accusing the media of misreporting.

He had yesterday told the court that “the then Finance Minister, who is now the Home Minister, had said in front of the Prime Minister that dilution of shares does not amount to the sale of 2G licence as per the corporate law.”

“Let the Prime Minister deny this,” he added.

Mr Raja today also questioned the “presumptive loss” worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore assessed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report and termed it as “worthless”, saying “its computation is not even relied upon by the CBI’’.

He also questioned the sanction to prosecute him, saying the same was flawed.

While defending himself against corruption charges in 2G scam, Mr Raja had yesterday also submitted to the court that there was nothing wrong in his decision of not auctioning the 2G spectrum and he was merely following the policies pursued by his predecessors and the NDA Government.

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