Kapil Sibal hits back at Arun Jaitley for allegations in spectrum case

New Delhi: Congress leader and former Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal Thursday hit back at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for alleging that CBI had filed a chargesheet in the spectrum case with "fabricated charges" at his behest, saying that he lived in a "make believe" world.

"The rumour has it that the Finance Minister manages the CBI better than anybody else. Mr Jaitley seems to be living in a world of make believe," Sibal said.

Earlier in a facebook post today, Jaitley targeted Sibal saying it was at his "behest" that CBI filed a charge sheet in a case of additional spectrum of 2002 which a special court today dismissed as "fabricated".

"Indeed the officers are guilty of fabricating charges against an honest civil servant and others. There is no doubt that the charge sheet was filed at the behest of Shri Kapil Sibal, the Telecom Minister in the UPA Government.

"At the time when the Telecom sector was riddled with scams, Kapil Sibal selected a retired Judge of his choice and asked him to unearth an 'NDA Scam' in Telecom," Jaitley wrote in a post.

He was reacting to CBI Special Judge O P Saini discharging all the accused including former Telecom Secretary Shymal Ghosh in a case related to fixation of spectrum user charges in 2002 during the NDA regime. The then telecom minister late Pramod Mahajan was named as a deceased accused.

Jaitley said the retired judge had opined that there could be an arbitrariness in fixing the Spectrum User Charges for allocation of additional spectrum.

"An unsustainable charge sheet was filed against an outstanding and honest Civil Servant Shyamal Ghosh. The idea to attack the NDA was by including the Late Pramod Mahajan in Column II as a deceased accused," he said.

The Finance Minister said he had consistently maintained that this charge sheet was full of fabricated facts.

Attacking Jaitley, Sibal said, "remember recently what he said, these protests by the writers returning Sahitya Akademi awards was a manufactured protest."