Radia admits to Cabinet formation talk with Raja, Kanimozhi

Says managing director of Tata Communications had meetings with Raja at the latter's residence in November 2008

Corporate lobbyist Niira Radia on Thursday made an appearance as prosecution witness in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court. She acknowledged her conversation with former telecom minister A Raja’s personal secretary R K Chandolia about Kalaignar TV being hosted on Tata Sky. She also admitted to talking about the formation of the Cabinet with Raja and Kanimozhi, Member of Parliament and daughter of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi.

Radia said the managing director of Tata Communications had held meetings with Raja at the latter’s residence in November 2008 and she, too, had attended some of these meetings. “In November 2007, Ratan Tata gave me a sealed cover to be handed over to M Karunanidhi, but I do not know its content,” she said.

Radia told the court according to her, Ratan Tata did not give any donation to Perambalur Hospital, under Raja’s constituency, as had been alleged.

She said Mahendra Nahata of Datacom had held discussions about his stake sale in 2008. She, however, added, “It is not in my knowledge that most of the new licensees who secured licences in 2008 were looking for foreign partners, though this was the general perception.”

Radia’s cross-examination would continue on Friday, when the court would also announce a decision on CBI’s plea to call Reliance Communications chief Anil Ambani as prosecution witness in the case.

Meanwhile, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy on Thursday filed a petition in the court to call two former finance ministry officials as witnesses in the 2G telecom spectrum scam trial. The two former ministry officials are Shyamala Shukla, former director of infrastructure, and Sindhushree Khullar, former additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs.

The court would announce its order on this matter on July 23. In his petition, Swamy asked the court to seek a note given by Raja to the joint parliamentary committee. He said Khullar and Shukla should throw light on the file notings in the meetings held between the telecom and finance ministries during Raja’s term as telecom minister.

Earlier, Swamy had made a plea to that Finance Minister P Chidambaram be treated as an accused in the case. He told O P Saini, special CBI judge, the examination of witnesses was incomplete, as the meetings on spectrum allocation with the other ministries hadn’t been discussed.