New Delhi, Dec 8: Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy was today allowed to testify in support of his private complaint seeking prosecution of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G case by a Delhi court.
The court said Swamy “was not prevented in law” from bringing fresh evidence about the roles of “other conspirators” in the scam.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini allowed the plea of Swamy that in view of his knowledge of “fresh evidence” on identity of other conspirators, he be allowed to depose again in the case.
“In view of the facts that complainant was not aware of the identity of additional proposed accused(s) at the time of filing of complaint, but has now come to know about it, he is not prevented in law from leading evidence on this point, more so, when he has referred to the role of other conspirators in his complaint,” the court said.
The court partially allowed the application of Swamy, who had not only sought to record his statement but also wanted to examine some government officials, to press his case that the then Finance Minister Chidambaram was equally culpable as he and former Telecom Minister A Raja had a role in deciding 2G spectrum prices and the entry fee.
“Accordingly, complainant Dr Subramanian Swamy is permitted to recall himself as complainant witness one for leading further evidence.
“However, other witnesses as mentioned in the list of witnesses filed with the application, shall be allowed to be summoned only after relevance of their testimony is explained by the complainant (Swamy),” it said, and fixed December 17 as the next date of hearing.
The court, in its 3-page order, referred to a high court judgement and said “The magistrate is duty bound to consider those factual averments even if they are not contained in the written complaint made to him.” Swamy, who first deposed in January before another court, sought permission to testify again saying earlier he was not aware of Chidambram's role.
The court said, “Furthermore, the case is still at the initial stage. Only complainant has examined himself as a witness. If such a prayer is made at an early stage of the case, I see no reason for disallowing the same.”
The special judge said the case of Swamy is that he was not aware of specific roles of “other unknown accused”, who were part of the larger conspiracy in relation to grant of Unified Access Services (UAS) Licenses and allotment of spectrum in 2007-08 by the Department of Telecom (DoT).
The court had on December 3 reserved its order on Swamy's plea seeking permission to examine himself afresh, senior CBI officials and others to prove that Chidambaram had taken a joint decision with former Telecom Minister A Raja regarding fixing the price for 2G spectrum.
He had claimed that Chidambaram, as the then Finance Minister, had permitted Swan Telecom and Unitech, who had secured the licences, to sell their shares to foreign companies.
Swamy, in his application, had said “The fact that the above named two ministers (Raja and Chidambarm) together decided that the prices of spectrum and entry fee should be lumped together at the 2001 level and decided against the market price of 2007-08 period for the entry fee, is confirmed by the speech of the Prime Minister in Rajya Sabha on February 24, 2011.”
