Justice Najmi Waziri allowed the pleas of some accused seeking more time to file response on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) petition and listed the matter for October 9 for further hearing.
The Unitech has also filed a reply which was taken on record by the court.
The court was hearing the central probe agency's plea challenging a special court's order acquitting Raja, Kanimozhi and others in the 2G spectrum case.
The special court on December 21, 2017 had acquitted all accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
While announcing the judgement, special judge O.P. Saini said the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove the charges against 33 persons named in the case.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the special court had also acquitted 17 others, including DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of STPL, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, film producer Karim Morani, and P. Amirtham and Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV.
Former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R.K. Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair -- were also acquitted by the special court.
The ED in its chargesheet had alleged that Rs 2 billion was paid by Swan Telecom (P) Ltd (STPL) promoters to the DMK-run Kalaignar TV.
The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 309.84 billion to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum. The allocation was scrapped by the top court on February 2, 2012.
The special court, which was set up on March 14, 2011 for hearing 2G cases exclusively, had also acquitted Essar Group promoters Ravi Kant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and six others in a separate case arising out of the 2G scam probe.
The first case, prosecuted by the CBI, had 17 accused, while the second, pursued by the ED had 19 undertrials. The third case had eight accused, including the Essar promoters.
Special Judge O.P. Saini acquitted all the accused, including then Telecom Minister A. Raja and DMK MP Kanimohi, in both the cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The alleged scam on the issuance of licences and allocation of 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecom occurred during the Congress-led UPA government's first tenure in 2008 but was widely reported in 2010 following a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
Special Judge OP Saini, who has been hearing two separate cases related to 2G spectrum allocation, said, "I have perused the files (related to the case) and will pronounce judgment on December 21 at 10.30 am.
The scam on the issuance of licenses and allocation of 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecom occurred during the Congress-led UPA government's first tenure in 2008 but was widely reported in 2010 following a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG),
The CAG had said 2G licenses were issued to telecom operators at throwaway prices causing a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer. It said licences were issued to ineligible applicants who had deliberately suppressed facts, disclosed incomplete information, submitted fictitious documents and used fraudulent means to get access to spectrum.
Then Telecom Minister A. Raja of the DMK -- a constituent of the ruling UPA -- became the face of the scam amid allegations that he bent the rules of auction to benefit a few and selective telecom players. Among others accused of complicity in the scam are DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi and party supremo M. Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal.
While Raja said he has faith in the judiciary, Kanimozhi remarked "let us see". They were present in the court when Judge Saini announced the date of judgment.
All the accused are out on bail. The court on Tuesday ordered all the accused to be present on the day of the final verdict when it will also deliver its judgment in the 2G case against Essar and Loop.
The scam was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)and the Enforcement Directorate.
According to the CBI, Raja was biased in allocating 2G mobile air waves and operating licences to telecom firms, causing a huge loss to the state exchequer. A chargesheet said Rs 200 crore were transferred from DB Group to Kalaignar TV as kickbacks in lieu of allocation of 2G spectrum to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd.
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a separate case related to money laundering, alleging that a conspiracy was hatched by Raja, Kanimozhi, Ammal and others and that Rs 200 crore were the proceeds of the crime.
The CBI has alleged that the promoters of the Essar Group were the real investors and beneficiaries of the spectrum and licences were issued to Loop Telecom, a front company of Essar to acquire 2G licences and spectrum in 2008.
Essar and Loop promoters are facing trial for hatching a conspiracy to cheat the government for obtaining spectrum licence. The accused have denied the charges.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned the matter for an early hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.
Mehta told the court the order staying the lookout notice was received by the CBI on Friday and since the next two days were Saturday and Sunday they were moving the court on Monday for an early hearing.
Mehta told the bench the Madras High Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
Emerging from the court room, Mehta said that the plea was against stay of lookout notice.
He urged the bench to hear the matter at the end of the board later during the day saying that petition challenging the high court order has already been numbered.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini reserved the order after hearing arguments advanced by ED in which the agency said that prima facie a case of money laundering was made out against the accused -- 10 individuals and nine companies.
The ED prosecutor told the court that their investigation in the case emanates from the 2G scam and the accused persons allegedly conspired and committed the scheduled offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The prosecutor claimed that the transaction of Rs 200 crore, which was allegedly paid to DMK-run Kalaignar TV, was "not genuine" and it was a "bribe for grant of telecom licences to DB Group companies".
On the alleged role of Raja, ED said, being the telecom minister, he was having the principal role in allotment of licences and he "assisted" in the offence of money laundering.
It said that DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal, who has also been chargesheeted as an accused, was holding 60 per cent shares in Kalaignar TV whereas co-accused Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar were having a stake of 20 per cent share each.
ED also alleged that there was a "reverse trail" of money from Kalaignar TV to Dynamix Realty through Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd (CFPL) and Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd (KFVPL).
It said the accused attempted to show that these transactions were genuine but surprisingly the reverse trail of money started when Raja was called by CBI for questioning in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation case.
"By the time it was speculated that Raja may be arrested, reverse trail of money started," it said, adding, "Prima facie this transaction shows trail of money by subsequent beneficiaries...."
"If Raja was not summoned by CBI or a case was not being lodged, perhaps the money could have never come back," it said, adding their investigation in the case was still going on.
Now that the judgment has acquitted all the 18 charged by the CBI in the ‘scam that wasn’t’ - worth an astronomical Rs 1.76 lakh crores, according to former CAG Vinod Rai – it’s time to think how this complete anti-climax came about. There are three possible ways to see it. First, as judge Saini said, there was no scam at all. But the problem with this assumption is: what then was the basis of the Supreme Court cancelling as many as 122 telecom licenses sending the whole telecom sector into a tailspin and jeopardizing foreign investment in the process? What were the tell-all Radia tapes all about? The tweaking of the rules at the last minute to benefit favourites, the rigging of the whole process, the floating of shell companies to channelize money and the hefty premiums earned by those who managed to get second generation spectrum licenses by selling them to bigger players – both domestic and foreign – and the sizeable revenue that the government earned after spectrum was auctioned are all recorded facts. It is thus obvious that there was something seriously fishy about the way the UPA went about handling the spectrum business - whether we call it a scam or a policy decision leading to a ‘presumptive loss’.
Second, the ‘caged parrot’ has messed it up again – as it has done in several recent cases, including the high profile Aarushi murder case. In his judgment, Judge Saini has said the prosecution ‘miserably failed’ to prove its charges. In a bid to save face, the CBI has said it would challenge the verdict in the Delhi High Court. But as we have seen in the Aarushi case, once evidence is messed up at the trial stage, there is precious little that a higher court can do about it. That the High Court will uphold the trial judge’s verdict is, therefore, a foregone conclusion. The judiciary goes solely and strictly by the evidence presented before it and the quality of the evidence proffered by the CBI was obviously not good enough to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt and convict the accused. One wonders whether there was actually no evidence that would have been admissible in the court or such evidence was deliberately suppressed to save the accused. Whether it was plain incompetence or was there something more to it? My hunch is it’s the second.
Third, the quality of the prosecution, which CBI judge said had ‘totally deteriorated’ over the last three years. Clearly, someone very powerful somewhere was not keen on the conviction of the accused and pulled the right strings to ensure that the prosecution falls flat. If nothing else, the choice of ADAG chief Anil Ambani, who should have been one of the accused, as a prosecution ‘witness’ and his convenient ‘memory loss’ at the time of actual deposition suggests all was not honky dory.
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My understanding of today’s judgment is having used the 2G scam to telling effect to win the 2014 elections, the Narendra Modi government saw no point in taking it to its logical conclusion because that would have meant convicting some of his darlings in big business. If some UPA era politicians like A Raja and Kanimozhi and bureaucrats like Sidharth Beura also got away scot-free in the process, then so be it. It is important to remember here that the BJP did not unearth the 2G ‘scam’; it jumped on to the bandwagon only after the spadework had been done by the likes of Prasant Bhushan and Dr. Subramaniam Swamy (who was not in the BJP at the time) and used it to beat the UPA - the Congress, in particular – in the run up to the last general elections. Let us not forget that the corporate czars who prospered during the UPA rule, including the man who called the Congress ‘apni dukaan’ in the Radia tapes, have prospered even more in the NDA government. Governments may come and governments may go, but corporates clearly go on forever!
The Congress is already using the judgment as a ‘victory’ of sorts with the ebullient Kapil Sibal coming out of exile to describe it as ‘vindication’ of his ‘zero-loss’ theory. But the real winner of today’s judgment is crony capitalism!
Modi was addressing a rally here for the BJP candidate from Ratlam. "Bofors scam, submarine scam, helicopter scam, 2G scam all took place during Congress rule, but if you question them about these, you are told "hua toh hua (so what)," he said making a snide reference to Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remark on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Last week replying to a question on the 1984 genocide, in which 3,000 Sikhs were killed, Pitroda said, "Hua to hua. Hua to kya hua. It happens, so what."
The Prime Minister accused the past Congress regimes of playing with the lives of Indian soldiers saying that they lost their lives in Naxal attacks for want of bulletproof jackets. "But if you question them about these, you are told hua toh hua (so what)," he said.
According to Modi: "Bomb blasts, by people with links across the border, were the routine in the country once. It was the wrong policies of the past Congress governments that created the term 'Hindu terror'. The Congress conspired to tarnish the great Hindu tradition and save the real culprits, who continued to spill the blood of innocents."
Modi also hit out at Congress candidate from Bhopal Digvijaya Singh for not casting his vote in the Rajgarh parliamentary constituency on Sunday, saying that the Congress leader had set an unhealthy precedent for young voters.
"The country is electing its representatives, even I went to Ahmedabad to cast my vote. The President and the Vice-President of the country were standing in queues to cast their votes. But 'Diggi Raja' didn't feel the need to cast his vote. What message are you giving to the young generation, Diggi Raja? You are committing a sin. A big sin," he said.