2G scam: Delhi Court allows Subramanian Swamy to be witness against Chidambaram

New Delhi, Dec 8 (ANI): A Delhi Court on Thursday allowed Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy to become a witness in his complaint against Union Home Minister P 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.

Talking to reporters here, Swamy said: "I am very pleased today, because the judge began his order by saying, I am allowing your application, then he said, but you will have to appear on the witness box first and explain the case, why you want to have Mr. Chidambaram summoned, and in the process, if I feel that you have made a case that these two witnesses are essential, then I will summon them, otherwise he will go straight to my petition."

"I have to go on the witness box and explain why I want these two officials to be summoned, and then, the judge said he would pass orders, whether he needs to be called at all. In other words, if he thinks that I have made my case fully and we can go to the next step if issuing summons for Mr. Chidambaram, then he may not feel it necessary to invite these two witnesses.

Chidambaram has been at the centre of political storm ever since certain reports revealed his alleged role in 'deciding' the prices of 2G-spectrum during his earlier tenure as the Finance Minister, thus embroiling him in the telecom scam.

His name cropped up in a recent letter of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which Mukherjee 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 colossal scam from occurring in the first place, considering 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)