2G scam accused wants to depose before JPC

In an interesting development, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, who has been chargesheeted in 2G spectrum scam, has expressed desire to appear before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the matter.

Balwa, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, has written to JPC Chairman P C Chacko expressing the desire to depose, sources said. The Committee will consider it when it meets on June 7 and 8.

Significantly, Balwa's letter to JPC comes days after he told a Delhi court that CBI should have made Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a witness in the case, citing the correspondence between him and the then Telecom Minister A Raja, who is the main accused.

JPC sources said Balwa would have been summoned by the Committee any case as he was one of the key players in the controversial spectrum allocation.

Meanwhile, Chacko dismissed media reports that JPC had decided to summon former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, terming it as "somebody''s imagination."

"Some section of press has reported that the JPC has decided to summon Vajpayee. We have not even discussed Vajpayee''s name in the meeting," he told PTI over phone from Kochi.

He said the committee has not taken a decision whether or not former Prime Ministers should be summoned at all.