2G Spectrum Trial From the Court Room

The much awaited 2G Spectrum allocation trial began on November 11, 2011, at the Patiala House, with recording of the first prosecution witness, Reliance Capital Vice President Anand Subramaniams’s statement..The much awaited 2G Spectrum allocation trial began on November 11, 2011, at the Patiala House, with recording of the first prosecution witness, Reliance Capital Vice President Anand Subramaniams’s statement..Friday’s proceeding ended midway through, Group President of Reliance A. N. Sethuraman’s deposition and next in line is Etisalat DB’s (formerly Swan Telecom) Chief Regulatory Officer Vinod Kumar Budhiraja..The other accused present in the Court were former telecom minister A. Raja; Kanimozhi; former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura; former personal secretary to A. Raja R.K. Chandolia; promoter of DB Realty and Swan Telecom Shahid Usman Balwa and promoter and MD, DB Reality and Swan Telecom Vinod Goenka; Telecom Executive Sanjay Chandra of Unitech Wireless and Reliance ADD Group’s Managing Director Gautam Doshi.The advocates representing them are – Senior Advocate Sushil Kumar; S J Aristotle; Senior Advocate Aman Lekhi; Advocate Vijay Aggarwal; Senior Advocate Majeed Menon; Advocate Harshad Ponda; Advocates Seema Gulati and Hariharan in their respective order..The proceedings began with the examination of prosecution witness Anand Subramanium..The March 1, 2007 document was shown to Subramaniam by the CBI counsel in court, a covering letter to the account opening form, which is of M/s Swan Telecom (P) limited, in HDFC Bank, Fort Branch, Mumbai..An application was moved on behalf of A Raja refusing to cross – examine witnesses saying trial cannot start unless the CBI probe is over in 2G Spectrum case..“As soon as the investigation in this case, which started on October 21, 2009, is complete and all the statements as mandated in section 244 of the CrPC as supplied to the applicant, the right to recall the witnesses for cross examination will be exercised,” Raja said in an application to the Court..Appearing for A. Raja, Senior Advocate Sushil Kumar told the Court that the CBI has apprised the Supreme Court that their investigation in connection with Loop Telecom is going on..The defense lawyers called Raja’s application ‘ridiculous’, stating that Raja was the first accused and that all charges emanated from him..The counsel pleaded the Court to hear the application saying it affects all the other accused and the case..The request was rejected by Judge O.P. Saini instantly, who said, “I may allow your application on some other grounds but not on this ground.”.There was already chaos in the court room, and to top it, the lack of air-conditioning due to power cut in the over-crowded courtroom also caused a stir, with some lawyers complaining to the judge about the poor conditions in court..A request was put forward by the lawyers to shift the trial to a bigger courtroom..It was interesting to see how advocates counter each other during the deposition while Judge O.P. Saini smiles away over their sarcasm, being spilled on each other..In between the Court room drama, Reliance Capital Vice President Anand Subramaniam could be seen tired standing in the witness box weighing each word he spoke in the courtroom..A. Raja on the other corner was seen dozing away for which his advocate said that this was the first time A. Raja seemed so tired..The court had named an initial batch of 28 witnesses to appear before it through the month, this includes 11 executives belonging to the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group..Three witnesses were summoned to be examined on day one, but the day was adjourned in midway through the second witness..The trial has just begun and it seems it will take some time before all the witnesses are examined.