Star prosecution witness in the 2G scam Aseervatham Achary on Monday told a Delhi court that when former communications minister A. Raja went to meet DMK MP Kanimozhi at her residence, he would ask “not to be disturbed”.
Mr Achary, former additional private secretary of Mr Raja, said in the court of special CBI judge O.P. Saini that although he had not seen Mr Raja go to Ms Kanimozhi’s house, Mr Raja himself told him when he was visiting her.
“I have not seen A. Raja visiting the house of Kanimozhi at South Avenue. Raja himself told me that he was visiting the house of Kanimozhi and need not be disturbed,” Mr Achary said while being cross examined by R.N. Mittal, defence counsel for DB Realty’s Shahid Balwa.
In the statement previously recorded by the metropolitan magistrate, Mr Achary had said, “She (Kanimozhi) had frequent visits to the camp office of A. Raja and Raja also used to visit her residence at South Avenue frequently. She is also very close to A. Raja in regard to political work of the DMK. They used to talk over phone frequently.”
He said, “I did not tell the CBI or the magistrate that Raja himseld told me that he was visiting the house of Kanimozhi and need not be disturbed.”
“I never visited the house of Kanimozhi personally. I gathered that Kanimozhi was residing at South Avenue, New Delhi,” Mr Achary said. Mr Mittal also questioned Mr Achary regarding his knowledge of Raja’s meetings with corporate lobyist Niira Radia, to which the witness said he did not know the purpose for which she used to come to Raja’s office.
***
Bihar CM for caste census panel
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, Jan. 3
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has sought setting up of an independent commission for conducting the ongoing socio-economic and caste census (SECC). Mr Kumar has stated in his letter to the Centre that the step was needed to ensure an unbiased execution of the census, which would help the state governments to arrive at below poverty line (BPL) lists.
The SECC is being conducted by the Union ministry of rural development. The Bihar chief minister has stated that a large number of anomalies were detected in the last such survey.
Mr Kumar also wants that the SECC exercise, which began in Bihar from December 15, be deferred till March 15, as the state government officials would be pre-occupied in paddy procurement. The ministry has already deferred the SECC exercise in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh till April.