New Delhi: Aseervartham Achary, ex-aide of jailed former communications minister A Raja, on Wednesday told a special court hearing the 2G case that Unitech's Sanjay Chandra, a co-accused in the 2G case, used to visit the office of his former boss.
Testifying as a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) witness, Achary told Special Judge OP Saini that he had never said that Chandra used to meet Raja.
"But I said that Chandra used to visit Raja's office," Achary told the court during cross-examination by Chandra's counsel RS Cheema.
Achary said that he had carefully read his statement deposed before magistrate, wherein he had not stated about any visit of Chandra either to the office or to the residence of Raja during his stint in the ministry of environment and forests.
"I do not know if in the fag end of the investigation, the CBI decided to falsely implicate Chandra. It is wrong to suggest that in this, I became a willing tool in the hands of the CBI and owned up a tailor-made statement," Achary said.
He denied suggestion of defence counsel that he deposed falsely and introduced the name of Chandra, DB Reality's Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka to falsely implicate them in the case.
He denied that his statement was made after being tutored by the probe agency.
Achary said that he do not know as to why a junior official (like him) was called by Raja instead of a senior official for writing letters to prime minister Nov 2, 2007.
He added that he was not able to recollect if Raja had any discussion with the finance minister and the external affairs minister.
Achary was cross examined by co-accused and Raja's former aide RK Chandolia, Chandra and Balwa. His cross examination by Goenka would continue on Thursday.
According to the government auditor, the 2G scam allegedly masterminded by Raja pertained to a biased distribution of mobile airwaves and operating licences, in lieu of kickbacks, to telecom firms that could have cost the treasury up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore in lost revenue.
Nineteen individuals and six companies are accused in the case. Except for Raja and Behura, all other arrested accused have been released on bail.
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