A Delhi court dismisses plea for making Chidambaram an accused in 2G case

New Delhi, Feb 4 (PTI) In a relief for India's Home Minister P Chidambaram, a Delhi court today dismissed a petition by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy seeking to make him a co-accused in the 2G telecom spectrum allocation case. "Your prayer to summon Chidambaram as an accused is dismissed," Special Judge O P Saini said on Swamy's petition reading out from his much-awaited judgement. The court said it will commence the hearing on the complaint filed by Swamy in which he had made further allegations against former Indian Telecom Minister A Raja and others without making Chidambaram an accused from March 17. The court, which is prosecuting Raja and 16 others for causing loss to the state by manipulating the first-come-first served (FCFS) policy in grant of 2G licences, said the role of Chidambaram in the pricing of spectrum at the 2001 level and dilution of equities by two accused licence holders Swan Telecom and Unitech to Etisalat of UAE and Telenor of Norway respectively "per se" was not illegal. Swamy, in his petition, had sought making Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case alleging that he was as culpable as Raja in determining the price of the spectrum. Reacting to the judgement, Swamy told PTI that he would approach the Delhi High Court with more evidence. Swamy said he was "dissatisfied with the order but not disheartened". Advocate Tarun Gombhar, who was assisting Swamy, said, "As far as the evidence we had produced to the court, it was sufficient to make a prima facie case against Chidambaram. If this court was not satisfied, we will approach the High Court". While cancelling the 122 2G spectrum licences granted in January 2008 on a first come first served basis on Thursday, the Supreme Court of India had refused to direct Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the alleged role of Chidambaram leaving it to the Special Court trying the 2G case. The bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly had also asked the lower court not to get influenced by its decision. The Special Judge, on January 21, had reserved the order for February 4 on the plea of Swamy. PTI