Swamy's plea to prosecute HM put up for 4th Feb

Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order for 4th February on Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking prosecution of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G scam case.  

"Put up for orders on February 4," Special CBI judge O P Saini said after Swamy concluded his arguments in support of his allegations against Chidambaram.

During the arguments, Swamy said the evidence he had brought on court's record prima facie show that Chidambaram is equally culpable as former Telecom Minister A Raja, who is facing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

"A Raja and P Chidambaram had committed the offence together. Prima facie Chidambaram had conspired and colluded with Raja to commit offence of criminal misconduct," he said.

He told the court that the evidence which he had bought before it was sufficient to show that Chidambaram, as the then finance minister, has prima facie committed offences under Prevention of Corruption Act and other criminal laws.

"It is clear that at this stage all I need to do is to show that evidence brought on record is sufficient to show that Chidambaram, at present not an accused in the case, has prima facie committed offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and other criminal laws," Swamy contended.

Referring to the court's order of 22^nd October on framing of charges in the case, Swamy said that offloading of shares by Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless to foreign-based Etisalat and Telenor respectively was only a "trick".

"I can lean on the pillars that the court has provided by its order on framing of charges. The share dilution was only a trick because it permitted licences to be transferred," Swamy said.

He also contended that being the then finance minister, Chidambaram, along with Raja, was empowered by October 2003 cabinet decision to discuss on and finalise spectrum prices.

"Since he (Chidambaram) had colluded, conspired and consented with Raja, he did not call for a cabinet meeting although the officers (of Ministry of Finance) had kept Chidambaram apprised of the whole thing," Swamy argued.

On 7th January, Swamy had completed recording of his statement and had deposed that Chidambaram was also "guilty of breach of trust of national security" as he had not disclosed that Etisalat and Telenor, to which Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless had diluted their shares, were blacklisted.

Swamy had told the court that the certified documents showed that Chidambaram was in "connivance" and "collusion" with Raja on fixing the price of spectrum licence and permitting two companies Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless, which received the licences, in dilution of shares even before roll out of their services.

Swamy had placed on record certified copies of the minutes of a meeting on January 30, 2008 between Chidambaram and Raja and also the minutes of another meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the two ministers.

Besides these, he submitted a certified copy of a January 15, 2008 letter written to the Prime Minister by Chidambaram, a December 21, 2010 communication to him from the Prime Minister's office and the controversial March 25, 2011 Office Memo of the Finance Ministry to PMO.