CBI's chargesheet against Raja filed; what's next?

New Delhi, Apr 3: A court exclusively set up for the 2G Spectrum scam on Saturday, Apr 2 took cognizance of the chargesheet filed by CBI against former Telecom Minister A Raja and eight others saying "there is enough incriminating material to proceed against the accused persons."

"I have carefully gone through the FIR, chargesheet, statements of witnesses and related documents and on the perusal of the record, I am satisfied that there is enough incriminating material on the record to proceed against the accused persons. Accordingly, I take cognizance of the case," Special CBI Judge O P Saini said.

The chargesheet also includes the names of former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura and three telecom companies Swan Telecom, Unitech Wireless Ltd and Reliance Telecom Ltd.

Shahid Usman Balwa, promoter of Swan Telecom, has also been chargesheeted by CBI.

The court noted that CBI has already been granted sanction by the competent authority for the prosecution of Raja's personal secretary RK Chandolia who is still a public servant.

The judge issued summons to other accused chargesheeted and not arrested in the case for Apr 13.

Those who are not arrested in the case are Vinod Goenka, a Director of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, which was also the promoter of Etisalat DB, Sanjay Chandra, Chairman of Unitech Wireless Ltd and Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara, Group Managing Director and two Senior Vice Presidents of Reliance Telecom Company.

The four arrested accused - Raja, Behura, Chandolia and Balwa - were supplied with the copies of the chargesheet.

CBI said the accused would be supplied with the copies of the documents annexed with the chargesheet on Apr 13.

PTI