2G case: Raja's former aide put to intense questioning
A former aide of A Raja was today put to intense questioning in the 2G scam case in a Delhi Court where he gave answers to queries ranging from the former telecom minister's communication with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and conversations with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia.
A former aide of A Raja was on Wednesday put to intense questioning in the 2G scam case in a Delhi Court where he gave answers to queries ranging from the former telecom minister's communication with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and conversations with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia.
Asservartham Achary, former additional private secretary of Raja, had a tough time to answer questions from defence counsel relating to the DMK leader's November 2, 2007 letter to the prime minister as in the first instance he was not sure whether it was urgent or not but later he admitted that it was urgent.
"I am not aware if the urgency was that Raja wanted to communicate to the prime minister that either he had not received his letter sent during the day or had (PM) ignored it," he first said when senior advocate Ram Jethmalani asked Achary whether he was aware of the reason of being called by Raja at around 9 pm at former telecom minister's camp office at his residence on November 2, 2007.
However, on seeing the letter, Achary said, "I admit that this was the cause of urgency."
Raja's November 2, 2007 letter was related to the cut off date for applications for the 2G licences and he had informed the prime minister that as unprecedented number of applications were being received, a cut-off date of October 1, 2007 announced on September 24, 2007 was retrospectively preponed for September 25 which the CBI alleged was done to favour some private telecom companies.
When asked about Raja and Radia, Achary said the corporate lobbyist used to call him "many times" on phone to inquire about the former telecom minister and she had also spoken about DMK-run Kalaignar TV in which Kanimozhi has 20% stake.
He said Radia used to call him often to know the whereabouts of Raja.