2G case: GE Vahanvati named as witness

A history of sorts has been created by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) when it named the government’s top legal functionary, the Attorney General for India, as a witness in the Rs1.76 lakh crore spectrum allocation scandal, which was allegedly masterminded and executed by the former telecom minister A Raja who is currently in jail.

Attorney general Goolam E Vahanvati couldn’t be contacted as he was believed to be watching India-Sri Lanka one day cricket final in Mumbai.

An aide of Vahanvati, however, said that though it was surprising, it was possible that the AG could be made a witness to testify about the controversial press statement that the then minister in 2008 was alleged to have forged. Vahanvati was the solicitor general then. The case will come up before special court judge OP Saini.

“The CBI can drop a witness at the time of trial,” the aide said, adding that “if” Vahanvati had been made a witness, than his oral testimony on the alleged forgery by Raja would have less strength than the scientific evidence by a handwriting expert on the issue.

Yet, the million-dollar question is whether the AG would appear before the court and subject himself to an examination by special prosecution counsel, Uday U Lalit, a Supreme Court lawyer, and then the cross-examination by a battery of counsel for Raja and the other highly politically  and monetarily influential accused.

Saini on Saturday recorded that the CBI has filed the charge sheet that was brought to the court in six brand new steel trunks. He took cognisance of the mammoth evidence locked in the boxes and issued summons for April 13 against the accused who have not been arrested in the case so far.

Earlier, Vahanvati had reacted sharply after reports appeared in the press that he had been “grilled” by the CBI in the case. He said the sleuths had approached him to seek some “clarifications” on forensic evidence and that it would be wrong to call it a grilling.

Vahanvati had said that a press note cleared by him in 2008 inviting applications for spectrum allocation had been altered and the CBI had said it found Raja’s hand in it. The AG had said that when the CBI had sought clarifications from him, he was “quite taken aback” when he saw the amended press release. He also told the CBI that two paragraphs of the press release had been deleted.

The final draft of the release had Raja’s noting approving it with the amendments, CBI sources said.

Thereafter, “the CBI had a forensic expert look into the notings and the alternations and they independently confirmed, through the latest forensic technology that these were subsequently put” the AG said.

He said that DoT (department of telecommunications) had earlier sent him a press release and had sought his opinion on it. He had sent back the release to the DoT after making some notings on it, the AG said. Vahanvati’s statements to CBI were taken on a legal opinion relating to a press release issued by DoT on the allocation of 2G spectrum on a first come-first-serve basis.