Former communications minister A. Raja, a key accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case, on Tuesday opposed in a special court here the CBI’s plea for placing on record a CD containing 62 recorded conversations and transcripts of 50 additional calls of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia pertaining to the multi-crore scam.
Mr Raja told the court that there is no legal provision to file documents at “such a belated stage of the trial” and that the investigative agency has not given any reason for not submitting the CD at the time of filing of chargesheet. “There is no provision in the CrPC, 1973, under which a document or article can be filed before the trial court at such a belated stage. The application under reply does not mention the reason for not placing the impugned CD and transcripts at the time of filing of the chargesheet,” he said. Mr Raja made the submissions in a two-page reply before Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini in response to the court’s notice earlier to all the accused seeking their response on the CBI’s plea. “Admittedly, the primary evidence of call recording, that is the hard disk, has been with the CBI since May 20, 2010, yet the same has never been placed on record before this court neither at the time of the chargesheet nor thereafter,” Mr Raja said.
The CBI had moved the court saying that out of the 62 taped conversations of Radia, it had already submitted transcripts of 12 conversations before it and now it wanted to place on record the rest for “fairness”.