Former Telecom Minister and 2G accused A Raja on Monday dragged in the Prime Minister and then finance minister Chidambaram names while defending himself in court. Defending himself before a special CBI court for the first time, Raja said that the Prime Minister was aware of the sale of equity by Swan and Unitech to foreign companies. Raja said that Finance Minister, in the presence of the PM, had said that the sale of equity is not illegal and was to attract FDI.The 47-year-old DMK MP pleaded before Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini that there was nothing wrong in his decision of not auctioning 2G spectrum as he had "implemented only what I have inherited." Senior Advocate Sushil Kumar, appearing for Mr. Raja, said if Mr. Raja is being prosecuted for following a certain policy then all Telecom Ministers since 1993 are liable to be prosecuted as they too followed the same policy. "If policy pursued by me was wrong, then all former Telecom Ministers since 1993 should also be in jail with me (Raja)," the counsel said while opposing framing of charges against Mr. Raja. He said, "As Telecom Minster Arun Shourie distributed 26 licences while Dayanidhi Maran distributed 25 and I (Raja) distributed 122 licences. Numbers make no difference, however, it is to be noted that none of them auctioned the spectrum. "If they had done no wrong, why am I being questioned? Let them deny that they have not done what I did. I was just following the 2003 Cabinet decision that is not to auction 2G spectrum. If I am following the law, I am not liable to be prosecuted. Infact, I should be rewarded," Mr. Raja said.
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