2G: Raja's lawyer asks court not to entertain Section 409

New Delhi, Sept 30: A Raja's defence counsel has asked the special CBI court not to entertain CBI's application of imposing section 409 against the former telecom minister.

Raja's counsel also demanded a probe against the CBI officials looking into the 2G spectrum scam.

Meanwhile, the date of hearing on the application of Section 409 will be on Oct 7.

CBI brought more trouble to the 2G accused, after the investigative agency charged A Raja along with Chandolia, Siddharth Behura and Kanimozhi under section 409 of the IPC (Criminal breach of public trust by public servant) seeking life imprisonment for the accused.

The charges slapped against those involved in the 2G scam till now could have led them to an imprisonment of seven years.

"It is submitted that accused 1, 2, and 3 (Raja, Behura and Chandolia) were public servants having a dominion over valuable 2G spectrum in their respective capacities as public servants," the CBI had said in its application.

"The said accused public servants in pursuance of conspiracy with other accused dishonestly disposed of the valuable 2G spectrum illegally and in violation of the existing policies and the eligibility criterion in order to confer wrongful gain on accused no. 4 (Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa), 5 (Vinod Goenka), 6 (Swan Telecom), 7 (MD of Unitech Sanjay Chandra) and 8 (Unitech Wireless Tamil Nadu Ltd)," the CBI had told the court.

"Thus, accused Raja, Behura and Chandolia have committed an offence punishable under section 409 IPC and all other accused have committed an offence punishable under section 409 read with section 120 B IPC. With the cognisance of this court (they) should be charged accordingly," said the application.

The CBI, in its plea also said that "a case of framing of charge under section 409 IPC is certainly made out."

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