M A I N   N E W S

Thanks to divided PAC, fate of 2G report uncertain
Faraz Ahmad/TNS

Corporate honchos seek bail The five corporate honchos today objected to their arrest in 2G spectrum allocation case and told the Delhi High Court that "mere apprehension" of fleeing and tampering with the evidence was not a "good enough" ground to "trample" their personal liberty. Bail is the rule and jail is exception. The mere apprehension (of CBI) is not good enough as the ground to trample personal liberty of the accused," Former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee, appearing for Gautam Doshi of Reliance ADAG, said. Besides Sorabjee, senior defence lawyers, Mukul Rohatgi, K T S Tulsi, Ranjit Kumar, Rajeev Nayar, NK Kaul, assailed the dismissal of the bail plea. — PTI

New Delhi, April 21
There is no certainty whether the Public accounts Committee (PAC) would be able to submit its report on the 2G scam it is probing for the last two years, even as its term comes to an end on April 30. The PAC members, belonging to the ruling Congress and the DMK, are opposing any further PAC probe now that Parliament has constituted a JPC.

They are also raising issues of sub judice and jurisdiction since the same matter is being simultaneously probed by the CBI under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The 2G controversy raked by the Opposition led to the resignation and, later, arrest and trial of former Communications Minister A Raja.

The PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi might still submit his report, incorporating the dissenting notes of Congress members like K.S. Rao, Saifuddin Soz, Naveen Jindal and Jitendra Singh. At today’s meeting they raised legal and procedural matters, to which the other side wondered how the JPC could examine the same issue.

The last meeting of the PAC on April 15 was virtually abandoned when the committee made Law Secretary D.R. Meena, Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati and CBI Director AP Singh wait almost the entire day after summoning them to testify and while Meena was eventually called for barely 10 minutes after waiting for several hours. The other two were asked to go back after waiting all day. The same set of people obstructed the PAC proceedings then as well.

They were asked to send in their testimony in writing and sources said all concerned, including these three, as well as the Union Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar and Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary T.K.A Nair have also sent written replies to the committee’s queries. There is a feeling of concern about all the work done and the testimonies of so many witnesses, if it were to abandon the probe at this stage after deliberating on this issue for last two years under three different PAC chairmen — Jaswant Singh, Gopinath Munde and Murli Manohar Joshi.

Joshi had claimed that the PAC had the autonomy and independence to probe every aspect it chooses and can expand its scope of investigations to any extent depending on the will of the committee.