Kapil Sibal backs Chidambaram over 2G case, says allegations against him baseless

New Delhi, Dec 10 (ANI): Defending Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on his alleged involvement in the 2G scam case, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday rejected all allegations levelled against him.

"People in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are trying to malign and defame P Chidambaram. We reject all allegations against him in the scam," Sibal told the media here.

"Former Telecom Minister A Raja did not hold any meeting with Chidambaram on 2G spectrum allocation. Records show that the Finance Ministry had no knowledge that Letter of Intent would be issued on January 10, 2008 by Telecom Ministry," he added.

Sibal further said no official of the Finance Ministry, including the then Finance Minister, had committed any "irregularity or misconduct" in the spectrum allocation

A Delhi Court on December 8 allowed Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy to become a witness in his complaint against Chidambaram in connection with the 2G telecom scam case.

The court told Swamy to appear in the witness box on December 17 to make his statement.

The special CBI court will then decide on Swamy's petition to examine witnesses to establish Chidambaram's alleged complicity in the 2G case.

Chidambaram has been at the centre of political storm ever since certain reports alleged that he had a role in "deciding" the prices of 2G-spectrum during his earlier tenure as the Finance Minister.

His name also cropped up in a letter of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which Mukherjee had blamed his predecessor for not sticking to the established procedures in auctioning of the 2-G spectrum.

The letter stated that sufficient steps were not taken by Chidambaram to prevent the scam from occurring in the first place, and that he could have "stuck to the stand" of auctioning of the precious spectrum instead of giving it at throwaway prices.

The telecom scam, one of India's biggest graft cases ever, may have cost 39.57 billion dollars in revenue to the public exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). (ANI)