2G: court reserves order for December 8 on Swamy's plea

New Delhi, Dec 3: A Delhi court on Saturday reserved its order for December 8 on Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's plea seeking permission to examine senior CBI officials and others to establish erstwhile Finance Minister and present Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's role in the 2G scam.

Swamy told Special CBI Judge OP Saini that he would like to examine senior CBI officials and other government servants to prove that Chidambaram had taken a joint decision with former Telecom Minister A Raja regarding fixing the price for the 2G spectrum.

Chidambaram, as the then Finance Minister, had permitted Swan Telecom and Unitech, who had secured the licences, to sell their shares to foreign companies, he claimed.

"I have made out a prima facie case that the fixing of spectrum price was jointly decided by the two ministers (Raja and Chidambaram) and the permission granted to sell shares (to foreign companies Dubai-based Etisalat and Norway-based Telenor) was not in accordance with law," Swamy said.

He said Chidambaram had written two letters, one to the Prime Minister and other to Raja, on the fixation of spectrum price.

"The then Finance Minister had written a letter to the Prime Minister saying he (Chidambaram) was the one who has to decide the price (of spectrum). The second letter was written to Raja that lets meet and decide (the spectrum price)," he said.

Swamy said even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that Chidambaram and Raja had decided on the spectrum price.

Swamy said the documents, which he had received from the CBI after the court's order, "shows in great detail" as far as spectrum pricing was concerned that it was jointly taken by Raja and Chidambaram.

"Four meetings took place between the two ministers. It is on record that the then Telecom Minister and the then Finance Minister met for deciding the spectrum pricing and it (document) says that Finance Minister said that prices of 2001 shall not be revisited," he said.

He further said the meetings between both the ministers "shows the meeting of minds" between them.

Swamy claimed that national security aspect was "ignored" as Swan Telecom and Unitech were allowed to sell their shares to Etisalat and Telenor, the firms who were under scanner of the Ministry of Home.

He said the office note of Ministry of Telecom said that the then Finance Minister had clarified the dilution of shares in foreign companies.

"The two companies, Swan Telecom and Unitech sold their shares to Etisalat and Telenor respectively. They were under the scanner of the Home Ministry and the Home Ministry had recommended that these two companies should not be allowed to do business in India," he said.

The Janata Party chief said Chidambaram "failed to protect national security" by not informing the authorities that Etisalat and Telenor were "genuine" companies.

PTI