New Delhi:
A Raja, who is in jail for allegedly designing and executing the country's largest-ever swindle, said in court today that he will have the Prime Minister summoned as a witness in his trial over what's referred to as the 2G scam.
Mr Raja was Telecom Minister in 2008 when companies with little telecom experience were selected for licenses for mobile networks, and accompanying frequency. He allegedly accepted large kickbacks from these firms, and manipulated policy to let them win licenses out of turn.
M Raja was arrested in February. The 2G scam is being investigated by the CBI and is being tried by a Delhi court.
"I will get the PM, then Finance Minister (P Chidambaram) and the present Telecom Minister
(Kapil Sibal) summoned as witnesses to prove there was no loss in 2G allocation," Mr Raja said in court today.
Mr Raja allegedly ignored the advice from other ministers to auction spectrum, which would have brought in much more money for the government. Instead, he chose to allocate licenses at rates determined in 2001.
The government, including current Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, has said that it was not the policy that was problematic, but Mr Raja's distortion that broke the law. Mr Raja has also said repeatedly that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram were aware that he had decided not to auction spectrum. They had the option of over-ruling him, he has stressed at earlier hearings.
Late last year, Mr Sibal who took over as Telecom Minister when Mr Raja resigned, infamously declared that there were no losses at all caused to the government by Mr Raja's scam.
The former Telecom Minister who is from the DMK has used this in his defense during his trial. His lawyers have asked what he's being accused of if the government incurred no losses.
Yesterday, another DMK leder in jail for the 2G scam, Kanimozhi, also threatened to summon the PM as a defence witness. Kanimozhi's father, M Karunanidhi, heads the DMK, which plays a key role in the UPA coalition at the centre with 18 Lok Sabha MPs. Kanimozhi was arrested in May, allegedly for allowing Mr Raja to use a TV channel owned partly by her to receive a kickback from one of the companies he obliged with a telecom license.