2G scam: CBI special court discharges Raja's aide Achary

New Delhi, Jan 6: The CBI special court has discharged Aseervatham Achary, one of the crucial prosecution witnesses in the 2G scam after being cross-examined by the counsels of the accused for 9 days.

Achary, an aide of former Telecom Minister A Raja had reported CBI investigating officer Vivek Priyadarshi that some unknown people visited his place twice enquiring about him.

“On September 2, 2011, I got a call from the manager of an apartment where I lived earlier and he told me that a CBI officer had come to that apartment, met him, and enquired about me and that the alleged CBI officer told him that I had applied for voluntary retirement and that the CBI was conducting an inquiry whether to grant permission. But I had not applied for voluntary retirement and even if I had applied, why should a CBI officer conduct an inquiry, to give clearance to the Railway Board?” Mr. Achary said.

He felt that the accused persons were trying to intimidate him so that he do not go to the court to tell anything. "The same day…I called Vivek Priyadarshi and he told me to come the next working day,” he said.

Asif Balwa's counsel asked him, “Have you taken any drugs which might have affected your memory?” when Achary said he could not recollect the two persons who defence suggested might be known to him.

The counsel asked, “Is this lapse of memory chronic or temporary or recently acquired?” when Special Judge OP Saini objected to his question. The Judge warned that “If such questions are put any further, the questions shall be disallowed with heavy cost.”

Despite repeated grilling by the counsels, Achary stood by his stand and denied any pressure by the CBI to give false evidence against the accused.

OneIndia News