Court reserves order on indicting Chidambaram in 2G case

The special CBI court in Delhi trying the 2G spectrum allocation case today reserved for 4 February its order on a plea by Janata Party head Subramanian Swamy seeking the indictment of union home minister P Chidambaram in the case.

During the arguments before special judge O P Saini, Swamy said the evidence he had brought on the court's record prima facie shows that Chidambaram is as culpable as former telecom minister A Raja, a key accused in the case who has now been in jail for around 10 months.

Swamy, a lawyer before he became a politician, has been permitted by the courts to himself argue his petition that seeks to involve Chidambaram, who was the finance minister when the alleged scam occurred in 2008, in the case.

"I have presented the minutes of a meeting between A Raja and Chidambaram in which Chidambaram has said that 6.2 MHz spectrum should be given for free with licence," Swamy said after completing his arguments in the case today.

Swamy said he had also presented to the court a note prepared by the home ministry that shows that both Swan and Unitech were influenced by the ISI and that Balwa has connections with mafia don Dawood Ibrahim who is living in exile in Pakistan.

Swamy's efforts to involve Chidambaram in the cause celebre have been going on for months; causing considerable political embarrassment to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.