Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy will present his case for making home minister P Chidambaram an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam in a special court on January 21.
Swamy told the CBI special court on Saturday that the evidence submitted revealed “connivance, collusion and consent” of Chidambaram with former telecoms minister A Raja in fixing pricing of airwaves and allowing Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless to dilute equity before rolling out services, earning windfall profits.
He added that documents in his possession showed that Chidambaram compromised on national security as he allowed blacklisted companies, UAE’s Etisalat and Norway’s Telenor, to buy equity in Swan and Unitech, contrary to a home ministry advisory.
Special CBI Judge OP Saini accepted the documents as evidence and scheduled to hear Swamy’a arguments two weeks later on why the home minister should be summoned in the case.
“On January 21, I will argue on why Chidambaram should be summoned. The court will permit me to lead arguments in the case as to why Chidambaram should be made a co-accused in the case,” Swamy told reporters. “I am completely confident that on the basis of this evidence Chidambaram will be a co-accused along with Raja after January 21,” he added.
The documents submitted include Chidambaram’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh informing him that Raja and he would finalise spectrum pricing. Minutes of meeting between Chidambaram and Raja discussing spectrum pricing have also been submitted.
Swamy added that memos and internal notes from the finance ministry repeatedly telling Chidambaram that 2001 prices of spectrum was very low and required revision were also part of the evidence submitted. Further, Chidambaram is said to be on record saying that spectrum pricing was “a closed chapter” and need not be revisited.
A finance ministry memo dated March 25, 2011, which indicates that Chidambaram could have prevented the scam, has also said to have been submitted in the court.
“The evidence brings on record offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act for which Raja has already been charged by this Court. I have also brought on-record evidence to show that Chidambaram is also guilty of breach of trust in question of national security for not disclosing that Etisalat and Telenor were black listed by Home Ministry Advisory,” Swamy told the court.
Swamy wanted the court to bring in sports secretary Sindhushree Khullar, the then joint secretary finance, and CBI joint director HC Awasthi as witnesses in the case.
