Radia, Vahanvati among 125 witnesses

April 03, 2011 02:43 am | Updated November 17, 2021 05:28 am IST - NEW DELHI:

The list of 125 witnesses submitted by the CBI in the first charge sheet filed on Saturday in the 2G spectrum scam include controversial corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, Attorney-General of India G. E. Vahanvati and Amit Sarin, head of real estate firm Anant Raj Industries.

The 654 documents submitted by the CBI as part of the estimated 80,000-page charge sheet include two original letters written by the ex-Telecom Minister, A. Raja, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dated November 2, 2007 and the office copy of a letter dated the same day written by the Prime Minister to Mr. Raja.

Also included are letters from the then Telecom Secretary to the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary T. K. A. Nair, dated November 6, 2007 and another letter, dated December 26, 2007 from Mr. Raja to the Prime Minister.

Signifying the agency's attempts to unravel the money trail in the scam, the submissions include over 200 documents pertaining to bank transactions, cheques and vouchers regarding receipts and payments involving several of the companies against whom the CBI has gathered evidence.

Most of the witnesses named are executives and employees of the three firms indicted in the charge sheet — Swan Telecom, Reliance Telecom and Unitech Wireless. Several top-ranking officials of the Telecom Department, including a Deputy Director-General, and nearly a dozen officials of Director and Assistant-Director level have been named as witnesses.

A peon in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is also one of the witnesses.

The documents also include DoT files pertaining to Unified Access Service (UAS) licence agreements signed with telecom companies, visitors' registers at the Sanchar Bhawan that houses the DoT, and seizure memos from searches conducted at various places.

Over 100 documents relate to applications of various telecom companies for licences in service areas, while nearly 230 documents are certified true copies of UAS licences. The minutes of the board meeting of Swan Telecom, Reliance Telecom and Unitech Wireless have also been submitted by the agency.

The statements of seven witnesses have been recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code before a magistrate. Investigating Officer Vivek Priyadarshi and two Metropolitan Magistrates at the Patiala House Court have been named as witnesses.

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