Court to decide on Raja: Jaitley

Questioning whether culpability of the 2G scam lay only with former Telecom Minister A Raja, BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday said it is now for the courts to decide whether there is any evidence against more individuals in the case.

“Admittedly there has been an offence committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the manner of allocation of 2G Spectrum. Is only A Raja responsible or are others also responsible?,” he said.

He further said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had in the past said that both the Finance and Home Ministers concurred over the issue of spectrum pricing.

“On 24th of February 2011, the Prime Minister had himself told the Rajya Sabha that both the Telecom and the Finance Ministers had concurred over the spectrum pricing,” Jaitley said. The BJP leader was reacting to a question about a Delhi sessions court order which dismissed Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy’s plea to make Home Minister P Chidambaram an accused in the 2G Spectrum case.

Jaitley said that during the NDA regime, decision had been taken that the Telecom Minister would fix spectrum prices in consultation with the Finance Minister.

“The NDA cabinet in 2003 had decided that spectrum prices would be fixed by the Telecom minister in consultation with the Finance Minister,” Jaitley said. He added it is for the courts to decide whether there was evidence against more people in the 2G case.

“The Telecom Minister having been held culpable, it is for the investigating and legal mechanism to decide whether there is evidence against the then Finance Minister,” he said.