Intending to drag the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and the then Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram into the murky 2G Spectrum scam, main accused of the scam Mr A. Raja told the special CBI Judge O. P. Saini today through his counsel Sushil Kumar that he discussed the issue of selling equity by spectrum licensees with both of them in advance.

Defending himself, the 47-year-old DMK MP told the court that he only followed the already set standards in not going for the auction of spectrum licenses. “There was no wrong in not auctioning the licenses as I was merely following the policies initiated by the NDA government,” he told the judge.

“Chidambaram said in the presence of the PM that sale of shares should not be construed as sale of 2G license as per the corporate law. Let the Prime Minister deny this,” argued Raja’s lawyer.

Raja’s counsel also said that when sale of equity doesn’t amount to sale of license, there is no question of earning profits and the question of corruption doesn’t arise at all in the case.

Denying the charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy against his client, Kumar said if Raja is being prosecuted, then all his predecessors also must be prosecuted as everyone followed the same policy. The arguments will continue.