2G scam: Miserable failure, court says while acquitting, Raja, Kanimozhi and all others

All persons have been acquitted in the 2G scam case. The verdict was pronounced by O P Saini who said in his order that the prosecution has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the charges against the accused.

The court also said that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the guilt of the accused.

The court found no ground to convict the persons charged by the CBI which included former telecom minister, A Raja and Kanimozhi.

According to defence counsel, Vijay Agarwal, the court held that since the prosecution had miserably failed to prove any of the charges against the accused, they were being acquitted.

The court held, "I have no hesitation in holding that record is not sufficient and the prosecution has miserably failed in proving charges. All accused are acquitted"

The CBI had argued that former telecom minister A Raja along with his private secretary R K Chandolia, decided the cut-off date for consideration of applications to be received up to September 25, 2007, to wrongly benefit accused Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director, Unitech Ltd., Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt. Ltd., Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd.

The prosecution examined 153 witnesses, including the chairman of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Anil Ambani, his wife Tina Ambani and corporate lobbyist Nira Radia.

The main charges levelled by the CBI were conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery for cheating and sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The list of acquitted persons:

• A Raja, former telecom minister
• Sidharath Behura, former telecom secretary
• R K Chandolia, IES officer, PS to telecom minister
• Shahid Usman Balwa, managing director, Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, now Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt ltd
• Vinod Goenka, director of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and managing director of DB Realty
• Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd
• Sanjay Chandra, manging director, Unitech Ltd
• Unitech Wireless Ltd (Tamil Nadu)
• Asif Balwa, director, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd
• Rajiv Agarwal, director Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd
• Karim Morani, director, MIS Cineyug Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd
• Sharad Kumar, director/promoter, Kalaignar TV Pvt. Ltd
• Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, director/promoter, Kalaignar TV Pvt. Ltd
• Ravi Kant Ruia, vice chairman, Essar group
• Gautam Doshi, group managing director, Reliance ADA group
• Surendra Pipara, group president, Reliance ADA group
• Hari Nair, vice president, Reliance ADA group
• Reliance Telecom Ltd
• Anshuman Ruia, promoter, Essar group
• IP Khaitan, promoter, Khaitan group
• Kiran Khaitan, former director, Santa Trading pvt ltd
• Vikash Saraf, director strategy, Essar
• Loop Telecom Ltd
• Loop Mobile Ltd
• Essar Teleholding Ltd

The Special CBI court has acquitted all persons in the 2G spectrum case. Judge O P Saini delivered the verdict.

The CBI had argued that former telecom minister A Raja along with his private secretary R K Chandolia, decided the cut-off date for consideration of applications to be received up to September 25, 2007, to wrongly benefit accused Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director, Unitech Ltd., Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt. Ltd., Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd.

The prosecution examined 153 witnesses, including the chairman of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Anil Ambani, his wife Tina Ambani and corporate lobbyist Nira Radia.

The main charges levelled by the CBI were conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery for cheating and sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The main charge is that a criminal conspiracy was hatched to cheat DoT and secure allotment of Universal Access System Licence/Spectrum for ineligible companies, M/s Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and M/s Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt. Ltd.

Allocation was made in 2008 without auction or any revision in the entry fee discovered by auction in 2001, resulting in companies gaining pecuniary advantage.

Raja, Behura and Chandolia manipulated the system to benefit the two companies. The cut-off date for considering applications on first-come, first-served basis was advanced by Raja to favour the two companies.

Raja struck off a para in a press release approved by the Solicitor General, deleting a reference to determining priority among applicants on the basis if date of application.

In lieu of licence and spectrum, Dynamix Realty, a partnership firm of DB Realty Ltd., and other DB Group companies, paid Rs. 200 crore to Kalaignar TV Pvt. Ltd. in December 2008-August 2009 through a circuitous route involving Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd (a DB Group company) and Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd.

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