Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, an accused in 2G telecom spectrum scam case, today termed CBI as the 'Central Bureau of Imagination' in a court here saying it did not know about the guidelines on eligibility of firms for grant of licenses.
"CBI is going on a wild goose chase," said Balwa who got an opportunity to speak informally to Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini due to a lawyers' strike.
"The only question is whether we (Swan Telecom) were eligible or not and this question is based on clause 8 of the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) guidelines. Everything else other than this that we were favoured for Delhi circle is all bogus ... CBI should be called the Central Bureau of Imagination for such an imaginary probe," he said.
Finding faults with the CBI charge sheet, Balwa said the agency did not make Ajay Chandra, brother of Sanjay Chandra, Unitech Managing Director and co-accused, an accused after he said it was Sanjay who was looking after telecom business.
"I gave a similar statement that I am only responsible for the telecom business. Even then, they put Vinod Goenka (another Director of Swan Telecom) in jail.
"Same for Dayaluammal (DMK supremo Karunanidhi's wife) who holds 60 per cent shares in Kalaignar TV (accused of receiving alleged bribe of Rs 200 crore from DB Realty). She has not been prosecuted and rightly so. Why is it that CBI thought all my relatives and friends and brother should be in jail?," he said.
Balwa also mentioned to the court the plight of other accused in Tihar jail.
"With access to better lawyers, we are still better placed. There are others in the jail, who are in much worse shape," Balwa told the judge.
About the 2G case he said clause 8 of the Unified Access Services Licence guidelines is applicable only to a licencee and not to an applicant and as such Swan was not ineligible.