Author: IANS
Publication: Daijiworld.com
Date: August 23, 2011
URL: http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=113042
The prime minister and the then finance minister
P. Chidambaram were fully aware of the 2G license allocations and had decided
with the now jailed telecom minister A. Raja not to auction these, DMK MP
Kanimozhi, who has been named co-conspirator in the scam, Tuesday told a Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court here.
Senior counsel Sushil Kumar, appearing for
Kanomozhi, told special Judge O.P. Saini that they were presenting the minutes
of a meeting in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram and Raja
had decided that licences for 2G spectrum were not to be auctioned.
"The (three) are good enough as witnesses
to prove that there was no loss," counsel said. "They are on record
in parliament that the government did not incur any loss."
Pleading that the case against Kanimozhi be
discharged, the defending counsel said: "The CBI case is based on the
premise that the accused caused huge loss to the state exchequer by not auctioning
licences for the 2G spectrum. The moment the loss factor goes out, how can
the investigative agency impose charges of cheating on my client?"
Sushil Kumar also trashed the computation
of the loss by the CBI and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), claiming
these to be "just notional losses", something that could not be
the basis for prosecution.
"The CAG report (putting the losses at
Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the state exchequer) was laid before the Lok Sabha Nov
16, 2010," Sushil Kumar argued. "It had not been adopted by the
house. It is still in limbo as the house is yet to adopt the report."
In the absence of parliamentary acceptance, the report lacked evidence value,
he said.
"Both the charge sheets of the CBI show
losses of Rs.22,000 crore and Rs.30,000 crore. I cannot understand the actual
loss caused by my client," Sushil Kumar told the court.
"No offence is committed as far as 2G
is concerned, as the rate of application money was already fixed at Rs.1,600,"
counsel said. He added that there was no question of conspiracy when this
rate was already fixed.
The first set of charge sheets, filed in the
case April 2, had named Raja, the now jailed telecom minister, eight others
and the three telecom companies as co-conspirators.
The supplementary charge sheets, filed April
25, named Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV chief Sharad Kumar, Cineyug Films founder
Karim Morani and two others as the accused.