India court rejects home minister prosecution bid

NEW DELHI: An Indian court on Saturday threw out a petition to prosecute the country's powerful home minister in a massive corruption scandal over the alleged mis-selling of mobile telephone licences.

The plea "to summon Chidambaram as an accused is dismissed," Special Judge O.P. Saini told the courtroom in a brief statement.

The ruling came as a huge relief to the Congress-led coalition government, whose reputation has been battered by the telecom scandal, alleged to have cost the treasury up to $39 billion, and a string of other graft cases.

Regional party leader Subramanian Swamy, who brought the case against Chidambaram, had alleged the politician could have intervened to avert the telecom scandal which occurred in 2008 when he was finance minister.

The decision came days after India's Supreme Court scrapped 122 telecom licences awarded in the 2008 cut-price first-come, first-served sale, causing upheaval in the flagship sector. (AFP)