NEW DELHI: All eyes will be on Special CBI Judge OP Saini on Saturday as he decides on Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's role in the 2G scam. Saini will decide if Chidambaram could be pronounced a co-accused in the scam. The 57-year-old was handpicked after the Supreme Court ordered that a special court be formed for the day-to-day hearing in the scam.
Judge Saini started his career as a Delhi Police sub-inspector in 1981 and shot to fame as a judge after the Red Fort shoot-out judgement where the main accused was sentenced to death.
Saini hails from a middle class Haryana family but does not bat an eyelid even when ministers or multi-millionaires are standing before him in the dock.
In November last year, when it was widely believd that Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, after 5 months in jail, would get bail on grounds of being a woman, Judge Saini rejected her bail saying she was a powerful politician and witnesses could get intimidated if she was not in custody during the trial.
Even the constant media glare doesn't seem to bother the soft-spoken judge. He is known to act tough even with the press if the decorum of the court isn't maintained.
Be it imposition of sections like criminal breach of public trust or denying bail to 2G accused, Judge Saini so far seems to have accepted prosecution's case in the 2G scam.
Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy is both the petitioner and the acting prosecutor in the case against Chidambaram. Will he be as lucky and as convincing as the CBI on Saturday? That's the question everybody is going to be looking at today.