The accused in the 2G scam on Monday blamed the Supreme Court for turning public prosecutors into "demigods" and claimed they are not getting a fair trial. They attacked the Supreme Court's decision that said appeals against the 2G court's orders will be heard only by apex court. This, they pointed out, led to summoning new witnesses even though their appeals against such summons were still pending with the top court.
With the order coming in the way of the accused to claim early relief, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for one of the 2G scam accused, told the apex court that the April 11, 2011 order passed by the apex court had upset the scheme of a fair trial guaranteed by the Criminal Procedure Code.
Protesting over the decision of the Court to appoint a special public prosecutor, Jethmalani said, "This case has seen public prosecutor (PP) appointed by SC, when it has to be either the State or Central Government. When we appear in court, we don't face PP but demigods… High Courts have become reluctant to deal with 2G matters even as the trial court wants to end the trial so that our challenge before the higher courts becomes infructuous."
The same grouse was shared by Reliance Telecommunications limited, which sought a stay of the trial court's order requiring 20 new witnesses to depose in the fag end of trial, one of whom included ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani. Suggesting that it was not holding a brief in favour of Ambani, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for Reliance argued that as an accused it felt the trial court order to help the CBI cover-up its shoddy probe, which failed to make good the allegations in the charge sheet despite having examined 140 witnesses.