A. Raja's former aide Aseervatham Achary on Monday rejected the former Telecom Minister's contention that the CBI put pressure on him to depose falsely as a prosecution witness after the investigating agency failed to connect Mr. Raja to the other accused in the 2G case.Mr. Raja's counsel Sushil Kumar also suggested that Mr. Achary turned against Mr. Raja after the latter failed to ensure his entry into politics, which the witness denied. Mr. Achary rejected Mr. Kumar's contention that he approached Mr. Raja for a Congress ticket to fight the 2009 general elections.
“It is wrong to suggest that I became a witness only when the CBI could not find anything to connect Mr. Raja with other accused. It is wrong to suggest that I was under pressure from the CBI because of the possession of assets disproportionate to my known sources of income. It is wrong to suggest that I was unhappy with A. Raja as he did not promote me in politics. It is wrong to suggest that for these reasons I chose to become a false witness against him for the prosecution [the CBI]. It is wrong to suggest that I am deposing falsely,” said Mr. Achary.
The witness also denied that he had collected documents from the Telecom Ministry without authorisation and that he supplied them to a journalist of an English daily after leaving Mr. Raja's service.
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