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2G case: CPIL seeks probe into prosecution-accused nexus
By: Tupaki Desk | 20 Feb 2013 3:42 AM GMTThe Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register an FIR and investigate the prosecution-accused nexus in the trial of 2G case.
The CPIL application has sought direction to the CBI to send the tape having audio recording of the alleged conversation between public prosecutor A.K.Singh and Unitech managing director Sanjay Chandra - an accused in 2G case - for voice test to multiple forensic labs.
The application by the NGO CPIL follows sting operation disclosure recording the audio of a direct conversation that public prosecutor Singh had with Chandra wherein they allegedly discussed the legal strategy to help later in the case.
The CBI has admitted receiving the audio that was recorded by a person who is so far unknown. The investigating agency has ordered preliminary enquiry into the disclosure.
Referring to the conversation between Singh and Chandra, the application said that they show telecom department official A.K. Srivastava was being used to help the accused.
"Srivastava (as deputy director general access services) was the officer who certified the 2G applications as eligible or as ineligible. While he cleared 122 applications for allotment of licenses, a hundred odd applications were rejected as ineligible," it said.
It said it turned out that about 100 applications out of 122 certified as eligible by Srivastava were in fact ineligible as per DoT's own guidelines, and he cleared them without verification despite notings from other DoT officers raising concerns.
"Instead of making him an accused, CBI made him a prosecution witness, on whose testimony the prosecution case rests. Both Swan and Unitech were charge-sheeted by the CBI as ineligible companies," it said.
Thus, "it was therefore in his (Srivastava) interest to get them exonerated as this would exonerate him too, since he had cleared their applications in the first place."
The CPIL said has sought direction to CBI to send the audio of Singh and Chandra's conversation for verification and voice-tests to multiple labs including Hyderabad-based Truth Lab.
The application filed by the counsel Prashant Bhushan said that it was pressing for multiple testing and verification of the audio including the Truth Lab because reports convenient to the government could be easily obtained from the government labs.
Vouching for the credibility of the Truth Lab, its said that the advisory committee of the lab is chaired by the former chief justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah and the lab itself is headed by former CFSL director S.R.Sharma.
As of now, the application said that the investigating agency has sent the audio to Delhi based Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) for verification and voice-test.
In this context it has referred to the way Delhi and Chandigarh-based CFSL labs gave conflicting reports on the genuineness of the CD recording the conversation between senior counsel Shanti Bhushan and a Samajwadi Party leader.
To ascertain if the case has not been compromised already, the CPIL has sought direction to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to "examine the trial record to check how the prosecution case has been compromised and submit a report to the apex court".
It has also sought direction to the central government to appoint a team of public prosecutors that in turn would be selected by the apex court.
The CPIL application has sought direction to the CBI to send the tape having audio recording of the alleged conversation between public prosecutor A.K.Singh and Unitech managing director Sanjay Chandra - an accused in 2G case - for voice test to multiple forensic labs.
The application by the NGO CPIL follows sting operation disclosure recording the audio of a direct conversation that public prosecutor Singh had with Chandra wherein they allegedly discussed the legal strategy to help later in the case.
The CBI has admitted receiving the audio that was recorded by a person who is so far unknown. The investigating agency has ordered preliminary enquiry into the disclosure.
Referring to the conversation between Singh and Chandra, the application said that they show telecom department official A.K. Srivastava was being used to help the accused.
"Srivastava (as deputy director general access services) was the officer who certified the 2G applications as eligible or as ineligible. While he cleared 122 applications for allotment of licenses, a hundred odd applications were rejected as ineligible," it said.
It said it turned out that about 100 applications out of 122 certified as eligible by Srivastava were in fact ineligible as per DoT's own guidelines, and he cleared them without verification despite notings from other DoT officers raising concerns.
"Instead of making him an accused, CBI made him a prosecution witness, on whose testimony the prosecution case rests. Both Swan and Unitech were charge-sheeted by the CBI as ineligible companies," it said.
Thus, "it was therefore in his (Srivastava) interest to get them exonerated as this would exonerate him too, since he had cleared their applications in the first place."
The CPIL said has sought direction to CBI to send the audio of Singh and Chandra's conversation for verification and voice-tests to multiple labs including Hyderabad-based Truth Lab.
The application filed by the counsel Prashant Bhushan said that it was pressing for multiple testing and verification of the audio including the Truth Lab because reports convenient to the government could be easily obtained from the government labs.
Vouching for the credibility of the Truth Lab, its said that the advisory committee of the lab is chaired by the former chief justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah and the lab itself is headed by former CFSL director S.R.Sharma.
As of now, the application said that the investigating agency has sent the audio to Delhi based Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) for verification and voice-test.
In this context it has referred to the way Delhi and Chandigarh-based CFSL labs gave conflicting reports on the genuineness of the CD recording the conversation between senior counsel Shanti Bhushan and a Samajwadi Party leader.
To ascertain if the case has not been compromised already, the CPIL has sought direction to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to "examine the trial record to check how the prosecution case has been compromised and submit a report to the apex court".
It has also sought direction to the central government to appoint a team of public prosecutors that in turn would be selected by the apex court.
