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A special court hearing the 2G spectrum case on Saturday reserved for February 4 its order on the Janata Party President, Dr Subramanian Swamy's plea against the Home Minister, Mr P Chidambaram.
This followed Dr Swamy -- who wants Mr Chidambaram to be made co-accused in the 2G case -- completing his arguments to back his allegations against the latter.
Mr Chidambaram was the Finance Minister when 2G licences were allocated in 2008 during the tenure of the then Telecom Minister Mr A Raja. Mr Raja is currently facing trial in the 2G case.
Dr Swamy alleged that the evidence submitted by him before the court ‘shows’ that Mr Chidambaram “colluded” with Mr Raja in fixing the price of the 2G spectrum licence and permitting Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless (which obtained the 2G licence) to dilute their shares even before the roll-out of services.
Therefore, Mr Chidambaram is ‘equally guilty’ as Mr Raja, Dr Swamy said, and claimed that the evidence was enough to show that Mr Chidambaram has prima facie “committed offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as other criminal laws.”
Citing the court’s order in the case on framing of charges, Dr Swamy also alleged that dilution of shares by Unitech Wireless and Swan Telecom “was only a trick because it allowed licences to be transferred.”
During the last hearing on January 7, Dr Swamy had said, “I have also brought on record evidence to show that Mr Chidambaram is also guilty of breach of trust in question of national security for not disclosing that Etisalat and Telenor (to which Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless had respectively ‘diluted’ their equity) were black listed by the Home Ministry Advisory.”
The certified copies of the documents that Dr Swamy placed before the court include: “Minutes of a meeting between the Prime Minister (Dr Manmohan Singh), the then Finance Minister (Mr Chidambaram) and the then Telecom Minister (Mr Raja); minutes of the meeting between Mr Chidambaram and Mr Raja on January 30, 2008; letter written by Mr Chidambaram to the Prime Minister on January 15, 2008; copies of documents received by Dr Swamy under the Right to Information Act; communication received by Dr Swamy from the Prime Minister’s Office; and extracts of the reports of the Committee presided over by Justice Shivraj V Patil.”
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