Ex-aide Achary pushes Raja deeper into 2G mire

Jailed former telecom minister A Raja's one-time aide Aseervatham Achary, a star witness for the Central Bureau of Investigation in the 2G spectrum allocation case, on Tuesday told the special CBI court trying the case that Raja was in touch with Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka and Unitech managing director Sanjay Chandra even while he was environment minister from 2004-07.

Dealing a further blow to his ex-boss, Achary, who was additional private secretary in the telecom ministry till 2008, told special judge O P Saini that the three corporate executives, also accused in the case, used to meet Raja and his ex-private secretary R K Chandolia (another accused) to pursue their interests with the environment ministry.

Testifying as the seventh prosecution witness, Achary stood by his earlier statements made before a magistrate. "The big construction projects cleared by Raja as minister of environment included those of Unitech and DB Realty, among other companies. I do not know the procedure followed for making such clearances as I was not involved in these clearances," he said.

"As far as Unitech is concerned, Sanjay Chandra, and as far as DB Realty is concerned, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka used to follow up. They used to meet Raja and Chandolia on a regular basis to pursue their cases in the ministry of environment and forests," Achary said, adding that they regularly visited Raja's official residence during September-December 2007.

He identified Raja's signatures on two letters addressed to the prime minister on 2 November 2007, and said one of the letters was dictated and typed at Raja's residence after 9 pm. " It is not usual for me to remain present at the official residence of Raja at these hours. I was called to his residence by Raja over phone," he said.

He said corporate lobbyist Niira Radia had called him (Achary) on the phone on 18 September 2008 to convey a message to Raja about putting Kalaignar TV in the Tata Sky bouquet.