Nine years after a series of investigative reports by The Pioneer exposed the mega loot in the spectrum allotment and shook the nation, a CBI Special Court will deliver judgment on Thursday in three cases of the infamous 2G scam. Judge OP Saini will deliver the judgment at 10.30 am.
The first two cases deal with the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheets against former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, high-ups of Swan and Unitech telecom companies, and three officials of Reliance Telecom. The third case is based on the CBI chargesheet in the Essar-loop case involving Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia and his son Anshuman Ruia.
The three cases are based on nearly two lakh pages of chargesheets and 15,000 pages of depositions made by over 150 witnesses.
In the main 2G case, apart from Raja and Kanimozhi, the other accused are Swan Telecom owners Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, Raja’s private secretary RK Chandolia, and former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura.
Three top Reliance Telecom executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair too were accused in this high-profile case for illegally floating Swan Telecom and covertly holding shares in it. Swan Telecom’s benami company owners Asif Balwa and Balakrishna Agarwal too were accused of transferring Rs 214 crore to DMK-controlled Kalaignar TV. The TV channel’s managing director
Sharad Kumar too is an accused in the case.
The charges against the accused under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC could invite imprisonment from six months to life term. Raja, Chandolia and Behrua were also charged with the breach of public trust under the IPC 409. At the time of framing of charges, then Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) UU lalit had argued that the breach of public trust warrants life imprisonment.
In the Enforcement Directorate’s case, DMK chief Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal too is an accused along with Raja, Kanimozhi, Sharad Kumar, Shahid Balwa, Vinod Goenka and their benami companies and their owners for transferring bribe to the DMK’s TV channel. The charge made under the PMlA provides for three to seven years of jail.
In the Essar-loop case, apart from Ravi Ruia and son Anshuman Ruia, Ravi Ruia’s sister Kiran Khaitan and her husband IP Khaitan too are accused of forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy.
Telecom operator Essar, which had major share in Vodafone, was not allowed to float another telecom company. Ruias and Khaitans covertly floated shell company loop to bag telecom licence illegally. loop’s first name was Shipping Stop Dot Com.
The star witnesses in the case were whistleblower Asservatham Achary, who was Raja’s additional private secretary, then TRAI Chairman Nripendra Mishra, who is now Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and then Finance Secretary D Subba Rao, who later became the RBI Governor. Then Attorney General AG Vahavati too was a witness in the case. Reliance Telecom owner Anil Ambani and wife Tina Ambani were declared as hostile witnesses by UU lalit as both claimed they didn’t remember most of the transactions with Swan Telecom.
legal eagles like Ram Jethmalani, Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatagi appeared in the trial court for the accused. After UU lalit was elevated as a Supreme Court Judge, the SC appointed noted lawyer Anand Grover as Special Public Prosecutor in August 2014.
The final arguments in the cases ended in June 2017. On December 5, Judge OP Saini reserved his verdict and ordered that all the accused should be present in the court on the judgment day on December 21.