Special Court acquittal of 2G-Scam case suspects surprises one and all

The judgment acquitting all 17 accused in the 2G spectrum case by the special trial court in Delhi has surprised one and all, as it is seen at odds with the Supreme Court's 2012 judgment that annulled all 122- 2G licenses issued in 2008 on grounds of corruption. It should be noted that the Supreme Court in February 2012 canceled all 122 licenses (2G spectrum licenses) issued in 2008 by the then UPA government alleging the allocation was stage-managed to benefit few companies by changing the first-come-first-serve principle and fiddling with the application dates. Read On...

Justice O. P. Saini of the special trial court, who has been dealing exclusively with the cases arising out of the 2G spectrum scam, however noted in his decision that he has absolutely no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well choreographed chargesheet. "The genesis of the case lies not so much in the actions of A. Raja but in the action/inaction of others. There is no material on record to show that A Raja was mother lode of conspiracy in the instant case," the order in the CBI vs A Raja & others case noted. The order further states that no evidence on the record produced before the court indicates any criminality in the acts allegedly committed by the accused persons relating to the fixation of cut-off date and manipulation of first come first served policy.

"Non-understanding of issues led to a suspicion of grave wrongdoing where there was none. DoT could neither effectively communicate the issues to others nor others could understand the same. Issues got snowballed when media reports started appearing," the order said.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had alleged that 122 licences sold in 2008 at prices determined in 2001 led to a loss of Rs 30,984 crore when compared with 2010 auction prices. The Comptroller and Auditor General had estimated the loss to the exchequer at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. The investigative agency had noted, that, A Raja and others had obtained illegal gratification in return for manipulation in allocation of licenses in such a way to push preferred applicants to the ‘front of the line’.

As expected, the CBI now plans to challenge the decision in the Delhi High Court.

The Supreme Court in its judgment in 2012 had said the minister in collusion with other suspects changed the last date for submission of applications from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007 giving sufficient ground to decide against the allocations.

Supreme Court in its order in 2012 noted : “He (Raja) simultaneously introduced cut off date as 25.9.2007 for consideration of the applications received for grant of licence despite the fact that only one day prior to this, press release was issued by the DoT fixing 1.10.2007 as the last date for receipt of the applications. This arbitrary action of the Minister of C&IT though appears to be innocuous was actually intended to benefit some of the real estate companies who did not have any experience in dealing with telecom services and who had made applications only on 24.9.2007, i.e. one day before the cut off date fixed by the Minister of C&IT (communication and IT) on his own.”

The order further notes that the cut off date of 25.9.2007 decided by the Minister was not made public till 10.1.2008 and the first-come-first served principle, which was being followed since 2003 was changed by him at the last moment through press release dated 10.1.2008. This enabled some of the applicants, who had access either to the Minister or the officers of the DoT, to get the bank drafts etc. prepared towards performance guarantee etc. of about Rs.1600 crores.

“The manner in which the exercise for grant of letter of intent to the applicants was conducted on 10.1.2008 leaves no room for doubt that every thing was stage managed to favour those who were able to know in advance the change in the implementation of the first-come-first served principle…” the court noted.

Former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK leader and daughter of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kanimozhi, then telecom secretary Sidhharth Behuria and Raja's personal assistant RK Chandolia along with company officials from Essar Telecom – Loop Telecom, DB Realty, and Kalaignar TV were charged for receiving kick-backs and preferential treatment in spectrum allocation.

Along with A Raja, Kanimozhi others who were acquitted included Kalaignar TV managing director Sharad Kumar, DB Realty promoters Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech group MD Sanjay Chandra, Reliance ADAG MD Gautam Doshi and senior vice presidents Hari Nair, Surendra Pipara, Cineyug Films promoter Karim Morani and Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables promoters Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal.

The 2G scam was among the major corruption scandals that erupted during former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's regime and was one of the main factors that led to the fall of UPA government in the 2014 elections.

- TradeBriefs Bureau - 

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