The former Telecom Secretary, Siddhartha Behura, was on Monday allowed by the Special Court hearing the 2G spectrum scam case to appear before the Joint Parliamentary Committee for giving oral evidence on July 12.
A letter dated June 25 had been received at the Tihar Central Jail regarding his appearance before the JPC. It was accompanied by photocopies of a letter dated June 17 from the Lok Sabha Secretariat on the matter and another later dated June 24 from Mr. Behura seeking permission to appear before the JPC.
Special Judge O.P. Saini exempted Mr. Behura from personal appearance in court on July 12.
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Meanwhile, 13 of the 14 accused persons in the case, excluding Surendra Pupara who is undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, were present on Monday in the special court, which reopened after a three-week vacation.
Mr. Saini asked counsel for the accused persons and the Central Bureau of Investigation to expedite the scrutiny of documents so that the “case may proceed further.” The matter of when to start arguments on charges in the case also came up before the court.
While Mr. Saini suggested July 11 as the date to begin arguments, advocates for the accused opposed this, pointing out that the CBI would be filing supplementary charge sheets in the case. Defence counsel also pointed out that CBI was yet to provide them copies of some documents.
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