Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy on Monday told the special court hearing the 2G spectrum case that he had no objection to his complaint being clubbed with the CBI case. He, however, demanded that he be given a “formal status to assist the CBI in its prosecution.”
Senior Public Prosecutor A.K. Singh sought time to study Dr. Swamy's complaint and file a reply. Advocates for the accused said their views on Dr. Swamy's complaint should also be ascertained before tagging the complaint with the CBI case.
Special Judge O.P. Saini gave the CBI time till May 4 to respond to the request.
“The scope of my complaint overlaps with the CBI case and in some instances it is wider,” said Dr. Swamy. He wondered why the CBI chose to charge the accused for forgery under the IPC Section 468, which had a maximum punishment of seven years, instead of IPC Section 467, which provided for life imprisonment.
“The court should give me a formal status … I do not think the CBI would have any problem in this … We are not going to be bystanders since I initiated the case in the first place,” he said.
Defence counsel for Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka Vijay Aggarwal said: “First of all there should be a formal application from Dr. Swamy to the court. Then notice has to be issued to the prosecution and to us because we are a relevant party in the case. We are entitled to be heard, but we will not be able to respond unless we see his complaint.” At this, Dr. Swamy said there was no question of his moving an application. Mr. Singh said the CBI was the first to move in the 2G scam case by filing an FIR in October 2009, following which investigation was taken up, and that Dr. Swamy's complaint came much later.
Dr. Swamy pointed out that the CBI's FIR was against “unknown persons” and that his complaint filed at a Tis Hazari special court in December 2010 specifically named the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja, as an accused, following which the CBI moved to arrest Mr. Raja and others on February 1.
