2G scam accused wants to depose before JPC

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In an interesting 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.

Balwa, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, has written to JPC Chairman P C 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 JPC comes days after he told a Delhi court that CBI should have made Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a witness in the case, citing the correspondence between him and the then Telecom Minister A. Raja, who is the main accused.

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

Meanwhile, Chacko dismissed media reports that JPC had decided to summon former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, terming it as ‘somebody's imagination.’

"Some section of press has reported that the JPC has decided to summon Vajpayee. We have not even discussed Vajpayee's name in the meeting," he said.

He said the committee has not taken a decision whether or not former Prime Ministers should be summoned at all.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat, meanwhile, said in a statement that no decision has been taken yet on the list of witnesses to be summoned by the Joint Parliamentary Committee. "The question of summoning Vajpayee as a witness before the Committee was not even raised during the sitting of the Committee. It is, therefore, categorically stated that the report appearing in certain section of the press regarding the decision of the JPC to summon Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India, is factually incorrect and is a mere figment of imagination," it said.

While the JPC will be briefed at their next sitting by the CBI representatives on June 7, those of TRAI and Departments of Revenue and Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance, including the ED, Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Financial Intelligence Unit, will brief it on the next day, the statement said.

In response to the request made by Chacko to the members of the Committee, suggestions are being received from them regarding persons to be summoned as witnesses before the Committee, it said.

"The list of witnesses will be finalised only after suggestions have been received from the members," the statement said.