Ex-telcom Secretary to depose before JPC on July 12

With a Joint Parliamentary Committee probing 2G spectrum allocation scam allowing former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura to depose before it, a Delhi court on Monday asked Tihar jail authorities to produce him before the lawmakers' panel on July 12.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini asked the jail superintendent to produce Behura before the JPC after the court received a communication from the prison authorities apprising it of the JPC's permission to the ex-bureaucrat to depose before it in connection with spectrum allocation scam.

The JPC had permitted Behura to testify before it following his plea to give him an opportunity to apprise the panel of his version of the case.

"A letter dated June 25, 2011, has been received from Tihar Jail, regarding appearance of accused Siddhartha Behura before JPC on July 12 at 11 am for giving oral evidence.

"The letter is accompanied by photocopy of a letter dated June 17, 2011, received from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Parliament House, New Delhi, on the subject cited above as well as photocopy of a letter dated June 24, 2011, written by Behura, seeking permission to appear before JPC," the court said.

The judge allowed Behura to appear before the JPC and exempted him from personal appearance before it on July 12.

Behura was the Secretary in the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) from January 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009, and has been accused of colluding with former Telecom Minister and key accused in the case A Raja in rigging the selection of 2G licence awardees.

Meanwhile, all the accused, except Reliance ADAG group President Surendra Pipara, appeared before the court.

Pipara did not appear before it as he is undergoing treatment at AIIMS.

The judge, meanwhile, asked the counsel for various accused persons to expedite their scrutiny of prosecution documents in the case.

"It is impressed upon the accused persons and their advocates to expedite scrutiny of documents and on CBI to supply deficient documents to accused persons at the earliest so that the case may proceed further," the judge said.

Advocate for accused DMK MP Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd Director Karim Morani, Raja's ex-personal secretary R K Chandolia and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Limited-five of the total of 17 accused told the court all deficient documents have been supplied to them.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court appointed-Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit asked the judge about the beginning of arguments on charges in the case.

The court proposed July 11 as the date to begin the arguments but several defence counsel opposed it saying CBI is yet to file the second supplementary charge sheet in the case.