Court must consider note on 'associate', say defence lawyers

Continuing with their arguments on the law ministry’s opinion on the word ‘associate’, defence lawyers of former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and Swan Telecom’s Shahid Balwa, both currently in jail for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, said the court must consider the document put on record by the CBI.

Behura’s counsel Aman Lekhi said CBI was not proceeding according to the law, first by submitting the report on the basis of the court order and then asking for it not to be considered. He argued that CBI was very clear in stating that then finance minister P Chidambaram and attorney general G E Vahanvati were not involved in the 2G scam but that it was writing off the law ministry’s opinion on associate companies because it would go against its case.