Court dismisses LTL’s plea to place DoT affidavit on record

A special court has dismissed the plea of Loop Telecom Ltd (LTL), facing trial in a case arising out of the 2G scam probe, to place on record a certified copy of an extract of a 2014 affidavit filed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) before telecom appellate tribunal.

Special CBI Judge OP Saini rejected the petition saying LTL’s conduct in filing the application at this stage “itself shows that there is nothing significant in this reply (filed by DoT before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal)”.

“The (DoT’s) reply is dated April 16, 2014 and the applicant/accused (LTL) closed its evidence full five months after coming to know of this reply. If this reply contained any material averment beneficial to the applicant/accused, it was at liberty to call Paramjit Chadha, Under Secretary (AS I), who had verified this reply, as its witness, which it failed to do,” the court said.

“Even otherwise the same is filed after a long gap without any explanation for the delay," the judge said, adding, "in the light of above discussion, I do not find that the document sought to be placed on record would help in the disposal of the instant case in any manner,” it added. In its plea, LTL had alleged that DoT’s conduct in the matter was found to be “inconsistent” by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).