2G: Accused to answer 1,700 questions by May 5

A CBI court here Monday granted time till May 5 to the accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case to reply over 1,700 questions running into 824 pages.

The accused include former union minister A. Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court Judge O.P. Saini fixed May 5 for recording the statements of the accused in the case and granted them two weeks' more time for answering the questions.

The court said it has no problem in granting more time to the accused for preparing the answers.

It added that sufficient time has been granted to the accused to read the file and the questionnaire has been supplied to the accused to expedite the case.

"You have to answer the questions in bullet speed," the court said.

The judge said that now time has come to listen to the accused and they can tell him more apart from the answers to the questions.

"Time has come to talk to me directly. It is a dialogue between the accused and me," the court said and made it clear that lawyers are not involved in the process of statement recording as the process is different from cross-examination.

The court order came after the defence counsel of the accused asked more time to prepare the answers.

Meanwhile, the court allowed exemption to Raja, Kanimozhi, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa and two other accused.

The questions are part of the recording of the statement of the accused, which was handed over to the accused March 27.

The court had Nov 27, 2013 concluded the recording of statements of 153 people running into 4,400 pages.

According to the government auditor, Raja was biased while distributing 2G mobile airwaves and operating licences to telecom firms, causing a loss of up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore in revenue to the treasury.

All the accused, including Raja, are out on bail.