2G scam: CBI seeks court's nod to produce more witnesses

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation sought the trial court’s permission to bring 10 more witnesses and transcripts of a corporate lobbyist along with 28 more documents, to strengthen its case in the 2G scam. The CBI said on Tuesday that it wanted to bring wife and kin of a key accused as additional witnesses in 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

It also wanted to submit the list of 10 witnesses and the documents that included bank documents in support of its charge sheets. Special CBI judge OP Saini asked the defence counsel to file replies by July 14. The additional witnesses include Aseela Vinod Goenka, wife of DB Realty managing director and one of the accused in the 2G scam Vinod Goenka, Pramod Goenka his brother and nephew Yashwardhan Goenka, the CBI told the court. The probe agency also sought permission to bring transcripts of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia in talks with DMK MP Kanimozhi, former telecom minister A Raja and his personal secretary RK Chandolia.

The CBI also sought to rely on an additional statement of Radia recorded by it on May 12 after filing of the first two charge sheets in the case. Raja has been accused of giving away mobile permits to ineligible companies at throwaway prices, causing the exchequer a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore, as found by the country's national auditor.

Raja, Chandolia, former telecoms secretary Siddharth Behura and DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa were the first to be arrested by the probe agency in February this year in the scam. The CBI named Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief Karunanidhi for allegedly receiving a kick back of Rs 200 crore in the DMK-run TV channel.