Reacting to questions on advancing the cutoff date for receiving 2G spectrum applications, former Telecom Minister A Raja's lawyer, Sushil Kumar, said, "My (client Raja's) secretary told him that there were 575 applications in total for 2G spectrums and it was not possible to process all of them."
A decision was made that the last date be advanced to receive applications for 2G spectrum because "you have to draw a line somewhere," Kumar said.
Senior Advocate Kumar continued arguments for the second day in a Central Bureau of Investigation court on Tuesday. Kumar later spoke exclusively to rediff.com.
Arguing his defence, Raja continued his attack on the prime minister and the department of telecommunication. Kumar said that he (Raja) did not act in isolation.
"They have all participated in my decision and said that he (Raja) was on the right track," said Kumar. He further explained that such decisions are "made in the government all the time".
However, Kumar reiterated that Raja "was being singled out". The decision that the last date of receiving applications would be advanced by a day was taken after Raja discussed this in a meeting, and everybody in DoT had the knowledge about this decision.
"If there is a conspiracy in this, the entire DoT is to be blamed, because the decision was arrived at after a meeting and everybody was aware of it; the entire DoT signed on the decision. This was a collective decision. This was a decision of DoT, and not my client alone. So, either all in the DoT are conspirators or no one is. Yet, all these people have now become witnesses and only Raja stands accused," argued Kumar.
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