Legal trouble for Raja?

A Raja seems to be heading for more trouble as Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy on Monday vowed to file a criminal complaint to prosecute him under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

A Raja seems to be heading for more trouble as Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy on Monday vowed to file a criminal complaint to prosecute him under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

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Swamy, who wanted the Supreme Court to direct the government to decide his plea for grant of sanction to prosecute the former telecom minister, told the court that after the DMK leader’s resignation there was no need for the sanction.

“Now I am going to file a criminal complaint against Raja in a Delhi court to prosecute him for corruption,” Swamy told a bench headed by Justice G.S. Singhvi.

He said the government was required to decide his request for sanction to prosecute Raja in three months but it simply sat over it making his plea fructuous. “I want the court should pass a formal speaking order on my petition so that it could a precedent for future such applications,” he added.

The bench acceded to Swamy’s request that he should be heard first on Tuesday when the hearing resumes.

Earlier, Prashant Bhushan — counsel for Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) – alleged that Raja sold 2G Spectrum on ‘first-come-first-served’ basis against all norms as if it was cinema ticket sale.

Bhushan expressed surprise over the government affidavit justifying everything done by Raja and the telecom ministry. CPIL has filed a rejoinder affidavit, which also contained transcripts of alleged conversations between some individuals who lobbied for allocation of 2G-spectrum allocation.

He alleged that the Department of Telecom (DoT) under Raja ignored the advice of PM, ministries of law and finance and the telecom regulatory authority of India and favoured ineligible companies while allocating 2G-spectrum in 2008, causing a loss of around R1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.

“The DoT in its affidavit has not addressed the issue of Raja’s conversations with corporate lobbyists Niira Radia and the role played by Radia in the award of licences and spectrum. These conversations were given by the Directorate of Income Tax (Investigations) to the CBI more than a year back,” said the rejoinder filed by the NGO.