Court rejects CBI plea to declare witness hostile

The special court hearing the 2G spectrum case rejected a CBI plea to declare a prosecution witness hostile as he allegedly went back on one of his statements given to the agency during investigation

The special court hearing the 2G spectrum case rejected a CBI plea Monday to declare a prosecution witness hostile as he allegedly went back on one of his statements given to the agency during investigation.

The agency alleged that Vardharajan Srinivasan,a former Reliance Communication Ltd official,did not stand by his earlier statement that Hari Nair,a senior vice-president of Reliance ADAG and an accused in the case,had instructed him and one of his superiors to submit an account opening form of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd to HDFC Bank. Srinivasan,however,is now claiming he never met or spoke to Nair,the agency said.

At one place in your examination-in-chief,you have stated that a letter was signed by us,that is,Anand Subramanium and yourself,on the instruction of Hari Nair and in the cross-examination for Hari Nair,you have stated that you never met with and spoke to Nair before signing the letter, the prosecutor asked the witness.

Srinivasan however answered that he had taken the instructions regarding the letter from his superior,A V Venkataramani,and on that basis,he had submitted the documents to the bank.

The CBI prosecutor then asked that the witness be declared hostile as he was resiling from his previous statement. Special CBI Judge O P Saini,however,turned down the CBI plea,saying since the matter pertains to a limited point,the witness is not declared hostile but the prosecutor is permitted to cross-examine the witness for the reason that he is resiling from his previous statement.