JPC has no plan to summon 2G accused

JPC has no plan to summon 2G accused

NEW DELHI: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which was set up to probe the irregularities in the implementation of the telecom policies between 1998 and 2009, has no plan, as of now, to summon the accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

At a news conference here on Wednesday, JPC Chairman P.C. Chacko maintained that the Committee would take a call on the persons required to be called as witnesses. It had no intention so far, he said, to summon those who figured as accused in the charge sheet filed by the CBI.

He was responding to a question whether Shahid Balwa, Swan Telecom promoter and a key accused in the spectrum allocation scam, was among the 85 persons shortlisted by the Committee for deposition as witnesses.

A fortnight ago, Mr. Balwa, now lodged in the Tihar jail, wrote to Mr. Chacko, volunteering to depose before the JPC.

“Yes I have received a letter from Mr. Balwa, but we have no intention as of now to summon him as a witness,” Mr. Chacko said.

In response to another question, the JPC chief said the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja, will be called as a witness before the Committee, not as an accused but as part of the decision to call all Telecom Ministers between 1998 and 2009.

Mr. Chacko said there was no suggestion till now to include Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi in the list.

Mr. Chacko said the Committee had decided to wait for the third charge sheet in the scam, which the CBI was to file by June 30, before commencing the process of interacting with those to be summoned.