Swan Telecom Promoter Shahid Balwa, facing trial along with former Telecom Minister A Raja and 15 others in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case, today told a special court that there was shift in the stand of CBI in the case and it only played to the gallery.
"We have been prosecuted wrongly... There was shift in the stand of CBI in the case. The main charge sheet, filed by CBI, has gone for a toss and they (probe agency) are roaming around only Rs 200 crore.
"Earlier they said my firm (Swan Telecom) was ineligible but later they confined themselves only to Rs 200 crore," Balwa's counsel told special judge O P Saini while advancing final arguments.
The agency has alleged that Rs 200 crore was bribe which was paid to the DMK-run TV channel in return of 2G licence granted to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL).
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for Balwa, further said, "They only played to the gallery, even called Anil and Tina Ambani, only because they had no case against me."
He said while questioning the witnesses, the agency did not even clarify about the ineligibility. "This was not a mistake but a sinister design," he said, adding that "as per their own case, no ineligibility was claimed by CBI on my part. They lack the basic claims to prove allegations against me."
Earlier, the counsel had told the court that there were several contradictions in prosecution's story which defy the existence of conspiracy and the CBI has made those persons accused in the case who have not toed its line.
Raja had earlier claimed that there was no evidence to show he was aware of the Rs 200 crore transaction between DMK-run Kalaignar TV and DB Group firm.
He had also said that the agency failed to produce any evidence that he had helped in any way in the transaction.
Besides Raja and Balwa, DMK MP Kanimozhi, former Telecom
Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Unitech Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, STPL promoter Vinod Goenka and three executives of Reliance ADAG - Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair - are facing trial in the case.
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also facing trial in the case, besides three telecom companies -- Reliance Telecom Ltd, STPL and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd.
In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012. All these accused, who are out on bail, have denied the allegations levelled against them by CBI.
