The CBI on Friday informed the Delhi High Court that its appeal against the acquittal of former Telecom Minister A Raja and 16 others in the 2G spectrum allocation case was "ripe for hearing".
CBI counsel senior advocate Sanjay Jain urged Justice Vikas Mahajan to either fix multiple dates to hear the matter, having a voluminous record, or post it on another date to decide a hearing schedule. He said, "The matter is ripe for hearing. I request the court to give a bouquet of multiple dates." Justice Mahajan then posted the matter on March 18.
A special CBI court on December 21, 2017 acquitted former UPA-era Telecom Minister Raja, who is now an MP from Nilgiris, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others in the CBI and ED cases stemming from the 2G scam. CBI and ED filed appeal challenging the acquittal in the High Court in March 2018. After six years, the High Court on March 22, 2024 admitted the CBI appeal saying there were “some contradictions” in the trial court judgment requiring a "deeper examination". In the CBI case, Raja, Kanimozhi and 15 others were tried under provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act for offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, using as genuine fake documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribes.
Aside from Raja and Kanimozhi, the special court acquitted former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's former private secretary R K Chandolia, Unitech Limited managing director Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of the Reliance Anil Ambani Group - Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair - in the CBI case.
Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka and the directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Private Limited - Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal - were also acquitted in the CBI case.
The special court also acquitted Swan Telecom (Private) Limited, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Limited, Reliance Telecom Limited, film producer Karim Morani and Kalaignar TV director Sharad Kumar in the CBI case.
