Raja submits list of defence witnesses

New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) Former telecom minister A. Raja, facing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation case, has submitted a list of four defence witnesses in a court here.

Raja submitted his list of witness before Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge O.P. Saini Monday. The list was made available Wednesday.

He requested the court to allow his plea and examine the witnesses so that he can defend himself in the case.

The list includes the name of S.E. Rajan, former personal assistant to the ministry of communication and information technology, who is currently working in the department of electronics and information technology, and officials from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, department of telecom and the law and justice ministry.

He also sought some documents to rebut the allegation of conspiracy between the accused people and to deal with the issue of alleged loss to the exchequer caused by grant of Unified Access Service Licenses and allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008.

Raja sought documents of Lok Sabha debates dated Nov 26, 2007; Feb 22, 2010 and Feb 21, 2011, text of the press statement given by Kapil Sibal, then union minister, on 2G spectrum issues dated Jan 7, 2011 and presidential reference dated April 12, 2012 made to the Supreme Court for supporting his innocence in the case.

"That the examination of the above-mentioned witnesses and tendering of the above-mentioned documents is essential for establishing the defence of the applicant as also for the just decision of the case," Raja said in his plea.

According to the government auditor, Raja was biased while distributing 2G mobile airwaves and operating licences to telecom firms, causing a loss of up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore in revenue to the treasury.

All the accused, including Raja, are out on bail.