Balwa wants to depose before JPC

In a surprise development, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, who has been chargesheeted in 2G spectrum scam, has expressed desire to appear before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the matter. HT reports.2G scam in a nutshell

In a surprise development, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, who has been chargesheeted in 2G spectrum scam, has expressed desire to appear before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the matter.

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Balwa, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, has written to JPC Chairman PC Chacko expressing the desire to depose, sources said. The committee will consider it when it meets on June 7 and 8.

Significantly, Balwa’s letter to the JPC comes days after he told a Delhi court that the CBI should have made Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a witness in the case, citing the correspondence between him and the then telecom minister A Raja, who is the main accused in the 2G scam.

Sources in the JPC said Balwa would have been summoned by the committee in any case as he was one of the key players in the controversial spectrum allocation.

In a related development, Chacko dismissed media reports that the JPC had decided to summon former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, terming it as “somebody’s imagination.”

“Some section has reported that the JPC has decided to summon Vajpayee. We have not even discussed Vajpayee’s name in the meeting,” Chacko said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi high court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre, Delhi government and the Tihar Jail chief on Balwa’s plea demanding changes in parole rules and other provisions to protect the fundamental rights of prisoners. The division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to all the three respondents seeking their replies by Aug 24.

(With agency inputs)