By IANS
NEW DELHI: Former CAG Vinod Rai on Thursday apologised to Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam in a defamation case filed by the latter.
The case was being heard in the Patiala House court in Delhi.
Sanjay Nirupam said, “Finally former CAG Vinod Rai tendered an unconditional apology to me in a defamation case filed by me in MM Court, Patiala House, New Delhi today. He must apologize to the nation now for all his forged reports about 2G and Coal block allocations done by the UPA Govt.”
The case pertains to a book which was written by Vinod Rai in 2015 and during its publicity allegedly had said that when he was investigating the coal block allocation, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam had met him and told him not to mention Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s name.
The Congress leader said it was totally false and first he asked him to withdraw his comment, but when did not do so, he filed a case in the Patiala House Court.
In his affidavit, Rai said, “That I understand the pain and agony my statement had caused to Shri Sanjay Nirupam, his family and well-wishers, I offer my unconditional apology.”
He said, “I had inadvertently and wrongly mentioned the name Sanjay Nirupam as one of the MPs who had pressured me to keep the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s name out of CAG report on 2G spectrum during the meeting of PAC and JPC.”
He said Nirupam’s name was factually incorrect.
In 2017, a special CBI court had acquitted all the 18 accused, including A Raja and Kanimozhi, in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
The scam came to light almost seven years ago when the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a report held then Telecom Minister A Raja responsible for causing the state exchequer a loss of Rs 1,76,379 crore by allocating 2G spectrum licences at throwaway prices.
