Aircel-Maxis case: Swamy's plea adjourned for tomorrow by SC

The Supreme Court today adjourned for tomorrow a plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking impleadment in a case filed against an Enforcement Directorate officer probing the Aircel-Maxis deal.

A vacation bench of Justices Arun Mishra and S K Kaul directed Swamy to serve the copy of his application to the petitioner Rajneesh Kapur who has filed the case against ED officer Rajeshwar Singh. The bench also asked Kapur to be present tomorrow during the hearing of the case. During the hearing today, the court found neither Kapur nor his counsel present and asked Swamy whether the copy of the application was served upon him (Kapur) or not.

Swamy replied they had served the copy but no one has appeared on behalf of the petitioner. "Then we will take up the matter tomorrow and you serve the copy of application and even personally inform him for appearing tomorrow," the bench said. The top court said that it will also take up for hearing tomorrow the contempt petition filed by Rajeshwar Singh, who had sough initiation of contempt proceedings as attempts have been made to thwart the ongoing investigation in the Aircel-Maxis case. In his petition, Kapur has alleged that Singh, the investigating officer in the Aircel-Maxis case, has amassed disproportionate assets beyond the known sources of his income.

Swamy, who had earlier moved the apex court for expeditious probe in the Aircel-Maxis case, has sought court's direction for making himself as a party in the plea filed by Kapur against the ED official. Earlier, on June 20, Justice Indu Malhotra recused herself from hearing in the matter without assigning any reason. The apex court had on March 12 set a deadline of six months for the CBI and the ED to complete the investigation into the alleged irregularities in FIPB approval given in the Aircel-Maxis deal case in which former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti have been questioned by probe agencies.