A special court here on Saturday reserved its order for February 4 on summoning Home Minister P. Chidambaram to appear in court to face prosecution, after complainant Subramanian Swamy concluded his arguments. Dr. Swamy contended that he had built a prima facie case to prove that Mr. Chidambaram during his tenure as Finance Minister “colluded” with former Telecom Minister A. Raja.
“A. Raja and P. Chidambaram had committed the offence together. Prima facie Mr. Chidambaram had conspired and colluded with Mr. Raja to commit offence of criminal misconduct,” Dr. Swamy told Special Judge O. P. Saini. “It is clear that at this stage all I need to do is to show that evidence brought on record is sufficient to show that Mr. Chidambaram, at present not an accused in the case, has prima facie committed offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and other criminal laws.”
“Share dilution a trick”
Relying on the charges framed against 17 accused in the CBI's case relating to the scam by Mr. Saini on October 22 last, Dr. Swamy alleged that the dilution of shareholding by Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless was a “trick.” “I can lean on the pillars that this court has provided through its order on framing of charges. The share dilution was a trick because it permitted licences also to be transferred,” Dr. Swamy said.
Pointing out that the Comptroller and Auditor- General of India in his report on the allocation of spectrum said that Mr. Chidambaram as the Finance Minister “should have insisted for a Cabinet decision,” Dr. Swamy argued that Mr. Chidambaram should have invoked the Transaction of Business Rules to refer the matter to the Cabinet. Deviating from his complaint, Dr. Swamy then remarked that recently Mr. Chidambaram had sought a Cabinet decision on the UIDAI controversy when the Home Ministry and the Planning Commission, under which the UID Authority falls, came into conflict.
“Since he [Mr. Chidambaram] had colluded, conspired and consented with Mr. Raja, he did not call for a Cabinet meeting, although Finance Ministry officers had kept Mr. Chidambaram apprised,” Dr. Swamy alleged. Dr. Swamy had recorded his statement on January 7 and placed on the court's record a number of certified documents on which he relied on Saturday to build his case.
