2G: Court to decide on framing of charges

A Delhi court is likely to pronounce its order today on framing of charges against 17 accused in the 2G scam including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

A Delhi court is likely to pronounce its order on Thursday on framing of charges against 17 accused in the 2G scam including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

HT Image

Special CBI judge OP Saini, who heard arguments on behalf of the accused and the CBI for over a month on day-to-day basis, had reserved the order on August 29.

Winding up arguments, special CBI Prosecutor UU Lalit had said that there was "sufficient prima facie" evidence against all the accused to proceed with the trial as everyone of them was part of the conspiracy and the intent to commit offence "may be inferred from their knowledge".

On the other hand, all the accused including Raja opposed the framing of charges and the plea of CBI that they caused a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the state exchequer in the grant of spectrum licenses.

The case cannot withstand the legal scrutiny as the Prime Minister and present telecom minister Kapil Sibal were on records that the state did not incur any loss, the counsel for Raja and others had submitted.

Raja also said that he may seek to examine the prime minister as a witness to prove that there was no loss.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, other accused include former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, Raja's former personal secretary RK Chandolia, DMK-run Kalaignar TV's MD Sharad Kumar, Bollywood filmmaker Karim Morani and Reliance ADAG executives Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.

The accused also included Unitech Ltd's MD Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka and directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal.