Former Telecom Minister A Raja today told a Delhi court that then Finance Minister P Chidambaram should be summoned and examined as a witness to prove the minutes of a Cabinet meeting that cleared the off-loading of shares by Swan Telecom and Unitech to two foreign firms.
"In the meeting, the then Finance Minister had clarified that dilution of shares to attract foreign investment does not amount to sale of equity. Chidambaram is a party to it and I am not calling him as an accused. CBI should have recorded his statement and the next step should be the Prime Minister. CBI should examine Chidambaram not as an accused but as a witness," senior advocate Sushil Kumar, appearing for Raja, told special CBI Judge OP Saini.
Raja refuted allegations of CBI that Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB) and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu), alleged beneficiaries of the 2G scam, illegally secured "huge windfall profit" by off-loading their equities to UAE-based Etisalat and Norway-based Telenor respectively after getting the Unified Access Services Licences.
The issue of dilution of shares by these two Indian companies were discussed in the meeting in the presence of Chidambaram and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said.
"Call Chidambaram and ask him whether this meeting took place or not in the presence of the Prime Minister and you [Chidambaram] gave this advice or not. Call him [Chidambaram] and confront him with the minutes of the meeting," the counsel for Raja said.
On alleged loss caused to the exchequer, he said "none less than the Prime Minister has said on the floor of Parliament that there is no loss."