A special CBI court here on Friday rejected the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja's plea to attend the Supreme Court hearing on the 2G spectrum case for “assisting” his lawyer.
His lawyer argued that in the interest of justice, Mr. Raja should be allowed to go to the Supreme Court to “elucidate correct facts, to explain certain technical aspects and to explain the sequence of events which happened…. in a better manner.”
He said Mr. Raja was also apprehensive of newspaper reports that Reliance officials might turn approvers.
The court said that as Mr. Raja was meeting his lawyer for an hour almost every day during the trial proceedings themselves, there was no merit in his argument that he was unable to brief his lawyer and, therefore, his physical presence was needed to assist him in the Supreme Court.
The lawyer said the Supreme Court was monitoring the trial proceedings and the investigation in the case and therefore a serious prejudice was being caused. Moreover, the CBI was making two different statements — in the special court that all investigations were over and in the Supreme Court that the probe was still going on.
The case had become a political battle between the government and the Opposition, the lawyer said.
The court also heard arguments against levelling of criminal charges by the CBI late last month under Section 409 of the IPC for breach of trust on the part of a public servant, which carries a 10-year jail term or life imprisonment.
While some of the accused submitted written arguments, Mr. Raja's lawyer, while arguing the legal merits of invoking Section 409, said: “This is a mala fide investigation which started in 2009 and suddenly they come up with Section 409. They want to hold these people in jail just to show that we have such big politicians… My submission is whether Section 409 applies at all.”
He added he had nothing to prove and that the documents in his possession were self-explanatory.