CBI defends summons for Mittal, Ruia

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday defended a Delhi court’s decision to summon Sunil Bharti Mittal and Ravikant N Ruia in the case involving allocation of additional spectrum in 2002.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday defended a Delhi court’s decision to summon Sunil Bharti Mittal and Ravikant N Ruia in the case involving allocation of additional spectrum in 2002.

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Mittal and Ruia, the chairman-cum-managing director of Bharti Cellular Ltd and director of Sterling Cellular Limited (now known as Vodafone Mobile Services) respectively, had petitioned against special CBI judge OP Saini’s summoning order of March 19, 2013.

In response to their petition, CBI said the court was empowered to do so under the criminal procedure code despite the agency not naming them as accused in the chargesheet filed after a detailed investigation.

Mittal petitioned against his summoning claiming a special bench of justice GS Singhvi and justice KS Radhakrishnan that is monitoring the 2G probe had in November 2012 asked CBI to file its chargesheet as per its director’s recommendation to not name the companies’ top men as accused.

“The petitioner relies upon this order to contend that the chargesheet was filed in compliance with the above order, and that this Hon’ble Court had not felt the need to proceed against the petitioner. It is submitted that the above order cannot possibly be meant to have excluded the petitioner from being added as an accused upon the satisfaction of the special judge, and if that is indeed the understanding of the petitioner, then the special bench comprising Justice Singhvi and Justice Radhakrishnan would be best placed to interpret its own order,” the CBI affidavit stated.

The CBI admitted it could not find enough evidence against Mittal and Ruia during its probe. However, it added, “After carefully going through the material on record, the Hon’ble special judge has taken judicial notice against the petitioner and issued summons to face trial as accused in the instant case.”