CBI hands over 500-page file to Swamy

The Janata Party chief had said the dossier would prove the 'complicity' of the then finance minister P Chidambaram

CBI hands over 500-page file to Swamy

The Janata Party chief had said the dossier would prove the 'complicity' of the then finance minister P Chidambaram

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Thursday handed over a file to Subramanian Swamy regarding the 2G scam. At about 3.30 pm yesterday, Swamy reached the CBI headquarters in the Capital and went to the anti-corruption branch of the investigating agency to receive the file. He spent about half an hour inside and then came out, visibly happy. A special court had directed CBI to supply complainant Subramanian Swamy a certified copy of a Department of Telecommunications (DoT) file which, he claims, relates to the lock-in period for sale of equity by Unified Access Services (UAS) licensees.

Subramanian Swamy

"I have got a 500-page file in which 34 official notings are present. I have to study all the papers and then I'll file them in court. I hope I have got all the papers I asked for," Swamy said after coming out the building.
When CBI sources were asked about the documents, they said, "We have not given any paper related to the 2G scam chargesheet. It (the file given to Swamy) is a DoT file dealing with re-introduction of lock-in period and the equity held by promoters in telecommunication license firms. The condition was not there since the introduction of UAS license with effect from November 11, 2003. It contains discussion held during November 08- July 09 culminating in decisions of not reintroducing the license condition regarding lock-in period," they said.

Swamy had earlier claimed that this file would prove the 'complicity' of the then finance minister, P Chidambaram, in the scam and help him in the prosecution of his case. The Janata party chief had also alleged that the file would prove that Chidambaram and former telecom minister A Raja had 'colluded' to allow dilution of shares by Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless so as to bypass the three-year lock-in period for sale of equity by new UAS licensees. CBI sources said the file contains no correspondence between Chidambaram and Raja.

Court rebuke
A Delhi court yesterday asked CBI to file its response to the allegation of an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case that the agency resorted to an 'unhealthy practice' of calling a witness 'unofficially' to its office in a bid to 'tamper' with the evidence.

Special CBI Judge OP Saini issued a notice to the agency seeking its response by November 23 on a plea filed by Vinod Goenka, a director of Swan Telecom and an accused in the case.