2G case: A Raja wishes to examine himself as witness

Former Telecom Minister A Raja has told a special court that he wishes to depose as a witness to defend himself in the ongoing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

"The applicant (Raja) wishes to examine himself as a witness in the present trial," Raja told Special CBI Judge O P Saini in his application for summoning defence witnesses in the case.

Besides this, Raja has also sought summoning of S E Rajan, his former personal assistant, as a defence witness saying Rajan would depose regarding the events and meetings held at the former telecom Minister's official residence.

He has also sought summoning of concerned officers from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Department of Telecom and Ministry of Law and Justice in his defence.

"Permit the applicant to examine himself as a witness," Raja said, adding, "issue summons to the witnesses as mentioned in the list of witnesses above (in his application)."

Apart from these, he also sought summoning of documents relating to debates in the Lok Sabha on November 26, 2007, February 22, 2010 and February 21, 2011 respectively.

He has said in his application that these documents would "rebut the allegation of conspiracy between the accused persons and to deal with the issue of alleged loss to the exchequer caused by grant of UAS Licenses and allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008".

Raja also requested the court to summon the text of press statement given on January 7, 2011 by Kapil Sibal, the then Minister of Communication and Information Technology, on the issues related to 2G spectrum and also the April 12, 2012 Presidential Reference made to the Supreme Court.

"Issue directions to the witnesses to bring along the documents mentioned in the list of documents," he said.

The Centre on April 12, 2012 had moved the apex court with a Presidential Reference for its opinion on issues arising out of its 2G spectrum judgement including whether auctioning of natural resources across all sectors is mandatory and the verdict be given retrospective effect for radio waves granted since 1994.