The special court hearing the 2G spectrum case here on Wednesday allowed a plea by the former Union Telecom Minister, A. Raja, to sign cheques to the tune of Rs.1 lakh to “meet the day-to-day expenses of his family” in June.
Mr. Raja told Special Judge O.P. Saini that since he was in judicial custody he was not able to sign cheques for withdrawing money, a prayer which Mr. Saini found “nothing wrong with” and gave the required permission.
Lawyers' protest
Meanwhile, advocates for the accused protested before Mr. Saini that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was not giving them all the documents that were filed along with the two charge sheets in the case.
In particular, they stressed that of the 17 letters that were part of the correspondence between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr. Raja, only a few were given to them. The advocates claimed that the CBI told them that they would be given all the “relevant” documents that were filed with the charge sheet.
“How can the CBI decide what documents are relevant or irrelevant to the accused in making their defence?” Vijay Aggarwal, counsel for Shahid Balwa, asked. The Judge then told the advocates that they would be given all the documents.
