Attorney General files affidavit on PM’s behalf in Supreme Court

NEW DELHI - Attorney General G. E. Vahanvati filed an affidavit on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Supreme Court today to explain why he took close to a year to respond to a request for the prosecution of former Telecom Minister A Raja over the 2G scam.

The 10-page affidavit reads that there was no inaction on Prime Minister’s behalf and how the Janata Party President and former Law Minister, Subramanian Swamy’s letters were adequately dealt by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The apex court had asked for the details of communication between the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Subramaniam Swamy, who had sought sanction for the prosecution of Raja.

Earlier on Tuesday, the apex court had asked the Government to explain why the Prime Minister took eleven months to take a decision on sanctioning of prosecution of Raja in the controversial 2G spectrum allocation issue.

Raja was forced to resign Sunday night under considerable pressure from the Congress, which continues to be attacked in Parliament by the Opposition on corruption charges.

On Friday, both houses of Parliament were adjourned till Monday as opposition members continued to demand a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G scam.

The 2G spectrum allocation has reportedly caused an alleged loss of Rs1.76 lakh crores to the Government, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has stated in a damning report.

The report further states that former Telecom Minister A. Raja had no apparent logical or valid reasons to ignore the advice of the Law and Finance Ministries while allocating telecom spectrum to several firms in 2007-08. (ANI)