New Delhi: Swan Telecom on Friday sought its discharge from the 2G case by claiming in a Delhi court that it cannot be held a co-conspirator with former Telecom Minister A Raja as besides it, many firms, including Tata Teleservices and Datacom, were also ready with demand drafts of Rs 1659 crore to get licenses.
"There is nothing sinister in CBI's allegations that only Swan Telecom had a prior knowledge about the requirement of a DD of Rs 1659 crore to get the 2G licenses. Many companies such as Tata, Idea Cellular, Spice and Unitech were also ready with the drafts on January 10, 2008."
"The recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that existing entry fees of Rs 1659 crore should not be revised and the fact the government had accepted the recommendations were the information in public domain. Then, how can it be said that Raja conspired with it and gave it the prior information on amount of the DD," advocate Amit Desai, appearing for Shahid Usman Balwa-promoted firm, told Special CBI Judge OP Saini.
He also cited news reports to support his argument that the fact that a DD of Rs 1659 crore would be required to be deposited as entry fees was known to all and sundry.
"How can the knowledge of media about it was innocent and the same knowledge to the Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB) becomes criminal," Desai, who argued for almost 11 hours in the last two days, said.
Concluding the arguments, he said "a person, who could be termed as a representative of the government, must appear here as a witness to support CBI's claim that the state incurred a huge loss when the Prime Minister is on record as saying that it did not suffer any loss."
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