2G scam: Prime Minister not guilty: Swamy

New Delhi, Nov.22 (ANI): Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, who is the chief petitioner in the 2G Spectrum case, on Monday told the Supreme Court that there was no malafide on the part of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and added that he was badly advised on the issue.

Swamy told the apex court that the Solicitor General of India, Gopal Subramanium, had misled the court in the matter relating to the demand for the prosecution of former Telecom Minister A Raja in the 2G spectrum case.

In an affidavit filed today, Swamy said: "There was no malafide on the part of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was badly advised by law officers, the Law Ministry and bureaucrats."

Subramanian Swamy further said his stand had been vindicated by the affidavit filed by the Prime Minister through his office.

Earlier today, before filing his affidavit, Swamy said the Prime Minister was sabotaged by his bureaucrats, as the files just kept moving from one department to another.

"The PM is an economist, he doesn't know the law and should be given the benefit of the doubt. After all, he needed advice from the concerned departments," he added.

Attorney General G. E. Vahanvati had filed an affidavit on behalf of Prime Minister in the apex court on Saturday to explain why he took close to a year to respond to a request for the prosecution of A Raja over the 2G scam.

The 10-page affidavit reads that there was no inaction on Prime Minister's behalf and reveals how Swamy's letters were adequately dealt with by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

The apex court had asked for details of communication between the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Swamy, who had sought sanction for the prosecution of Raja.

The Supreme Court had earlier on November 16 asked the Government to explain why the Prime Minister took eleven months to take a decision on sanctioning of prosecution of Raja in the controversial 2G spectrum allocation issue.

Swamy had on November 18 said that the Prime Minister should stop acting helpless and take stringent actions against those responsible for the scam.

Swamy compared Dr Manmohan Singh to Abhimanyu, a character in Hindu epic - Mahabharata, who has been trapped from all directions.

The 2G spectrum allocation has reportedly caused an alleged loss of Rs1.76 lakh crores to the Government, the CAG has stated in a report.

The report further states that Raja had no apparent logical or valid reason to ignore the advice of the Law and Finance Ministries while allocating telecom spectrum to several firms in 2007-08. (ANI)