Subramanian Swamy claims documents prove Chidambaram discussed 2G spectrum pricing with Raja

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, who had last week got access to 500 pages of official file notings, today claimed that he had proof that then finance minister P Chidambaram had discussed the pricing of 2G spectrum with A. Raja, the former telecoms minister.

''I am releasing these documents to demolish any argument that the meeting between Chidambaram and Raja did not take place,'' Swamy told a news conference in Delhi. ''There is no ambiguity that they met.''

Swamy, a petitioner in the case, has been trying to get Chidambaram – now the home minister – named as a co-accused.

The BJP-led opposition disrupted the proceedings of the Lok Sabha on the opening day of the winter session of parliament on Tuesday, demanding that Chidambaram be sacked. Swamy said the minister should quit, now that he had provided documents indicating Chidambaram knew about the underpricing of the 2G spectrum.

According to Swamy, a finance ministry document dated July 4, 2008, revealed that Chidambaram and Raja discussed spectrum usage charges and also the pricing for 3G bandwidth. They had also agreed on fixing the pricing of the 2G spectrum, taking the entry fee of Rs1,650 crore determined in 2003-04 by the National Democratic Alliance regime for the pan-India operation of United Access service licencees.

Special court judge O P Saini, who is presiding over the 2G trial, had directed the CBI to hand over the documents to Swamy.

The former minister in the Chandra Shekhar government – in the early 1990s – claimed that the Chidambaram and Raja had met four times.

Swamy claims that the documents formed part of the 80,000-page charge-sheet by the CBI, but had not been submitted to the court. He now plans to present the documents to the trial court on 3 December.