Had met prosecutor but he never tutored me: 2G witness

He also said that Special Prosecutor U U Lalit and his junior met him two days before his cross-examination in the case began.

Former deputy director general of the Department of Telecom A K Srivastava,a key prosecution witness in the 2G spectrum allocation case,has told the court that he had visited the office of the Public Prosecutor at the Patiala House courts several times prior to the recording of his statement,and had also met the Investigating Officers (IOs) of the case there. He also said that Special Prosecutor U U Lalit and his junior met him two days before his cross-examination in the case began.

The meeting with U U Lalit continued for about an hour during which there was a general discussion about this case, said Srivastava,during the cross-examination by advocate Vijay Aggarwal,on behalf of accused R K Chandolia. However,Srivastava told the court of Special Judge O P Saini that he was never tutored by the Special Prosecutor. He also said he never spoke to the IOs in the Prosecutors office,and they never spoke about the case in his presence.

It is wrong to suggest that I was tutored to give evidence in a particular way. It is wrong to suggest that I was instructed in that meeting to volunteer information to undo the cross-examination, he said.

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Srivastava also revealed that former telecom secretary Chandolia had specifically told him not to mention that the note initiated by the former on September 24,2007 was done on Chandolias instruction.

Stating that the former telecom secretary,though lower in the bureaucratic hierarchy,exercises the powers of the minister and issues orders in his name,Srivastava said that Chandolia gave orders to us and put pressure on us. When questioned by the counsel as to whether procedural rules were violated by not mentioning Chandolias name in the note,Srivastava said,It was not possible for him to think about violation of office procedure since Chandolia was the PS to the minister and put pressure on him. Srivastava also told the court that he had not mentioned anything about Chandolias involvement in the note since it did not earlier occur to me.