By IANS,
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court Monday allowed former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, in jail in the 2G spectrum case, to appear before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the scam July 12.
CBI special judge O.P. Saini passed the order after taking note of Behura’s plea. “The prayer is allowed,” said the judge.
The court also exempted him from personal appearance before it that day.
The court allowed Behura’s application after it got a letter dated June 25 from the Tihar Jail regarding his appearance before the JPC.
Behura was arrested Feb 2 along with former communication minister A. Raja and his personal secretary R.K. Chandolia. He is accused of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct.
Being the secretary of the Department of Telecommunication from Jan 1, 2008 to Sep 30, 2009, he has been accused of colluding with Raja in rigging the selection of licence awardees.
He has maintained he was merely a civil servant who implemented a decision taken by the minister (Raja) before he became the DoT secretary.
The scam relates to alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum to telecom firms, reportedly causing huge losses to the national exchequer.