India’s former telecom minister, accused in a mammoth fraud case, insisted Monday that he was innocent and that Premier Manmohan Singh had been aware of his actions as he began his court defence. South Indian politician A. Raja is on trial in New Delhi along with 15 others including company executives over the allegedly corrupt sale of telecom licences in 2008 that has badly shaken Singh’s govt.
“They (the police) know they have no case,” said Raja in a statement through his lawyer Sushil Kumar, adding India’s then finance minister P. Chidambaram and Singh were aware of all of the ex-minister’s actions. Raja is suspected of rigging rules for the sale of second-generation (2G) mobile phone licences to favour certain firms in exchange for bribes and is charged with abuse of power, cheating, forgery and criminal misconduct.
“I am making it clear I did what I did on legal advice and my understanding of law,” Raja said, challenging the PM to “deny” that he had knowledge of all the decisions involving the licence sales.
