New Delhi: A former aide of A Raja and key
witness in 2G spectrum case on Wednesday failed to recall in a Delhi
court if the ex-telecom minister had discussions on telecom
issues with his erstwhile senior cabinet colleagues Pranab
Mukherjee and P Chidambaram before sending the letters to the
Prime Minister in November and December 2007.
Raja`s former Additional Private Secretary Asheervatham
Achary said he did not remember if the former minister had
discussed telecom issues with Mukherjee and Chidambaram before
writing letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November
and December 2007 on issues related to spectrum auctioning.
"I am not able to recollect if around November 2, 2007,
and December 26, 2007, there were discussions of A Raja with
the Finance Minister (Chidambaram) and the External Affairs
Minister (Mukherjee)," Achary told Special Judge O P Saini.
Raja had written letters to the Prime Minister on
November 2, 2007, regarding cut-off date for applications
for the 2G licences. He had also written to the PM on December
26, 2007, detailing procedures to be adopted for distribution
of Letter of Intents (LoIs) and first-come-first serve (FCFS)
basis.
Through a November 2, 2007, letter, Raja had apprised the
PM that due to unprecedented number of applications received,
the cut-off date of October 1, 2007, announced on September
24, 2007 was moved forward later for September 25, a step that CBI
alleged had been taken to favour some private telecom firms.
Testifying as the seventh prosecution witness in the 2G
case, Achary told the court that he did not know if the
November 2, 2007, letter was "drafted by Raja
surreptitiously".
PTI
