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| Raja's ex-aide says 'life under threat' |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Dec 23, 2011, 00:37 IST |
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There was some drama in the Patiala House court room in the 2G telecom spectrum scam hearing, when an important witness pointed to someone present as having come to his house once and threaten to kill him and his kin.
 The man was promptly held and, after being questioned briefly, given over for custodial interrogation. He denied all the charges, saying he was only an office peon of some of the company executives facing trial.
The person making the accusation was Aseervatham Achary, former additional personal secretary to A Raja, the now-jailed ex-telecom minister. He first told judge O P Saini that his life was under threat. Counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation then said he had been provided with a personal security officer (PSO). At which point, Achary sought permission to say something more. He said he was recollecting an incident of August this year, when an unknown person had visited him at his house in Delhi’s Safdarjung Enclave locality and was stopped by the PSO, Sukhbir Singh. “The visitor requested for water from the PSO. He (PSO) came a little inside to fetch a bottle of water; by the time he turned towards the entrance, that visitor had disappeared,” Achary said.
Present in the witness box for the fourth day on Thursday, Achary said the person who had threatened him, his daughter and wife was present in the court, and pointed towards the gate. The man in question was found to be one Jai Prakash, held by the city police personnel present and produced in front of the judge. Achary said his PSO had pointed to Jai Prakash as the same man who had made that August visit. Jai Prakash said he was an office boy, running errands for Reliance Communications executives Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara, fetching them water and coffee, etc, during the court proceedings.
On being asked by the judge to confirm this identity, Pipara said Jai Prakash was with him. Jai Prakash pleaded before Saini that he didn’t know Achary at all and had never been to Safdarjung Enclave. The The Delhi Police took Jai Prakash into custody for questioning. A police officer later said he works as a peon in the Reliance Power office, Noida.
After the court proceedings were over, Achary asked the judge for the court’s help in getting a house in Delhi, in view of the alleged threat to life for his kin and himself. He said the lease of his Safdarjung House was going to get over and with seven family members and security officers, it was very difficult for him to find a rented accommodation.
However, during his deposition on Thursday, he also mentioned that his wife was the owner of an apartment in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, and he had tenancy agreements in the southwestern Delhi locality of Dwarka (under his name) and in Safdarjung Enclave (under his wife’s name).
Meanwhile, Sushil Kumar, senior advocate for former telecom minister Raja, grilled Achary over the taped conversation the ex-aide had with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia on the issue of entering politics . “In July 2008, I had expressed my ambition for entering politics before A Raja…nobody expects a mere PA to become a politician…On this, A Raja told me that politics is not an easy field. Thereafter, I decided not to enter politics,” he said.
Achary denied owning a ‘benami’ (in someone else’s name) Tata Motors Agency in Tiruchirapalli. He also said Raja was reluctant to relieve him of his office and this was the only cause of his “personal differences with him”.
Achary went on to add that Raja had said he was like a younger brother and that is the reason he did not want to relieve him. “Furthermore, when A Raja met with an accident, I took care of his health and took him to various hospitals. He treated me like his younger brother and this was the reason I stayed with him till 2008,” he said.
The court in its order acknowledged Achary's apprehensions on his security and his application for strengthening it.
"A copy of this order, along with a copy of the application, be sent to the Commissioner of Police immediately for information and further action in this regard," the order said.
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