The 2G Special Court on Monday allowed former Telecom Minister A Raja’s plea seeking to depose as a witness to defend himself in the ongoing trial in the 2G spectrum scam case. The examination of defence witnesses produced by the accused will start on July 1. Though Raja claimed he would demand calling former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram as witnesses on several occasions, he restrained himself to submitting names of some his staffers and telecom department officials to court.
“The accused (Raja) wishes to examine himself as a witness in his own defence and the application has been filed under his own signature. CBI not opposed. The accused is at liberty to examine himself as a witness in his own defence,” the judge said.
Raja had moved an application for summoning defence witnesses in the case saying, “The applicant (Raja) wishes to examine himself as a witness in the present trial.” The court also allowed the pleas filed by former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, Unitech ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, Reliance ADAG executives Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair, Bollywood producer Karim Morani, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar and accused firm Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt ltd seeking to summon some witnesses in their defence in the case. However, DMK MP Kanimozhi, Reliance ADAG executive Gautam Doshi, Swan Telecom promoter Vinod Goenka, Reliance Telecom ltd and Swan Telecom Pvt ltd had said they do not wish to lead any evidence in their defence.