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A Raja seeks letters exchanged between UU Lalit and CBI, citing dna report

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Amidst controversy over CBI director Ranjit Sinha attempting to derail the probe against Reliance in the 2G scam, former telecom minister and prime accused in the case A Raja has sought a direction to the CBI that he should be supplied with copy of letters exchanged between former special public prosecutor UU Lalit and the CBI.

Raja made this plea to the Supreme Court citing a story that appeared in dna on August 4 with the headline "Is CBI trying to save Reliance in 2G case?" Taking advantage of a row between the CBI chief and the prosecution, A Raja seems to make maximum out of it as evidence in his defence.

dna, which had access to a letter written by Lalit, now elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court, had on August 4 reported that the CBI chief has found some new facts, which contradict with the present charge sheet filed against three accused of Reliance Telecom, Shahid Balwa of Swan Telecom and DMK's Kanimozhi.

Thus, the CBI director proposed to suspend the ongoing trial against Reliance and reopen the case for further investigation.

Finding the allegations against Sinha "serious", the Supreme Court has also taken all documents and file notings pertaining to the probe against the Reliance Telecom in its custody. As reported by dna, Lalit had opposed Sinha's view and said that this proposal is 'tantamount to weaken the ongoing 2G trial'.

Appearing for Raja, his counsel, senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani argued that his client should be provided with copies of all documents so that he can prepare his defence.

"Direct CBI to supply all materials with complete sequence of event for actions taken by the CBI director in the interest of justice," the lawyer said.

In his application, Raja has cited the dna report and CBI chief's explanation and said on the plea of petitioner NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), the court on August 12 had taken the original file into its custody.

"A direction to CBI and the petitioner (NGO) to disclose the detail and supply copies of all the relevant material to enable him to assert his right to liberty under Article 21(right to life and liberty) of the Constitution," Raja's application said.

He referred to a CBI draft, as reported in media and said "if CBI is of the view that Clause 8 of UASL guidelines should apply only to a licensee and not to an applicant then the entire prosecution case of cheating is false.

Clause 8 of USAL guidelines says no single company either directly or indirectly or through its associates shall have substantial equity (10 per cent or more) holding in more than one licensee company in the same service area.

Raja cited that media also reported in the Reliance case, the applicant was Swan Telecom's Shahid Balwa. And if clause 8 of USAL does not apply on Swan, the entire case against Balwa and Reliance falls apart. The next hearing by the bench headed by justice HL Dattu is on September 22.

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