Delhi court defers hearing on fresh allegations against Raja

A Delhi court today deferred till 26 May the hearing on a plea by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy who had come out with some fresh allegations against former telecom minister A Raja, the key accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

Special CBI judge OP Saini, who had, last month rejected Swamy's plea to make home minister P Chidambaram a co-accused in the case, had earlier said the hearing on Swamy's complaint, which contained fresh allegations against Raja would resume from today.

The court adjourned the hearing for 26 May after Swamy's counsel Tarun Goomber stated that the matter for making Chidambaram a co-accused in the case was pending before the Supreme Court. (See: Probe Chidambaram role in 2G scam, says fresh plea to SC)

Goomber said about the appeal filed by Swamy against the special judge's 4 February order that the matter was pending in the Supreme Court and they were hoping that order would come soon. He asked the hearing in the matter of fresh allegations be adjourned till mid-May.

The court had dismissed Swamy's plea to make Chidambaram an accused in the 2G case saying he had not been involved in any criminal conspiracy neither had he derived any pecuniary advantage in the decisions taken with Raja.

Chidambaram got a clean chit from the court in the matter of the  controversial allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008, as the court observed that he was party to only two decisions - retaining the spectrum pricing  at 2001 levels and dilution of equity by two companies and these were ''not per se criminal'' offence.