merisarkar news serviceNew Delhi, September 20, 2011
Probe Chidambaram's role in 2G Scam: Swami
The Centre and the CBI opposed Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's plea for probing HM P Chidambaram's alleged role in the 2G- scam case, saying the SC did not have the jurisdiction to pass such an order after filing of chargesheet in the case.
Senior counsel KK Venugopal and PP Rao, who are representing the CBI and the Centre respectively, questioned the maintainability of Swamy's plea on the ground that his similar application was pending before special judge OP Saini.
“Every single document, filed in the Supreme Court, has also been placed before the trial court. He (Swamy) cannot ride two horses at the same time… Let him go and pursue the matter there in the trial court,” Venugopal told the bench.
He said the probe into the scam during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja was complete and the trial court was in the process of framing charges. Now it was for the trial court to take decision on any such issue, Venugopal said.
But Swamy alleged Raja was not alone in taking decisions regarding 2G-spectrum allocation and as the then finance minister Chidambaram was also a party to the conspiracy.
Swamy said his application before the SC was different from the one filed in the special court.
“In the trial court I have not asked for CBI inquiry. No other court except the High Courts and the Supreme Court can order CBI probe. I have pleaded with the trial court that Chidambaram should be made co-accused in the case and I also told the trial court that I would like to wait till my application is decided by the Supreme Court. There is no clash,” Swamy told the bench.
He alleged that the CBI was determined to give a clean chit to Chidambaram. "Chidambaram was not a passive partner ... but was actively involved in the fixing prices for 2G spectrum along with Raja," he said.
