New Delhi: A special court here is likely to decide the fate of former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and several others in the much-anticipated 2G spectrum allocation scam cases on Thursday.
Special CBI judge O P Saini is scheduled to pronounce the judgements in separate cases lodged by the CBI and the ED in the infamous 2G scam which rocked the UPA government.
The court, which is exclusively dealing with the cases arising out of the 2G spectrum scam, has directed all accused, including Raja, Kanimozhi and others to remain present before it tomorrow for the verdict.
The trial in 2G spectrum scam started six years ago in 2011 after the court had framed charges against 17 accused in the CBI’s case for the offences which entails punishment ranging from six months in life imprisonment.
One of the cases in which judgement is likely to be delivered on Thursday involves Essar Group promoters Ravi Kant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia, Loop Telecom promoters Kiran Khaitan, her husband I P Khaitan and Essar Group Director (Strategy and Planning) Vikash Saraf as accused. In the first case filed by the CBI, Raja and Kanimozhi are facing trial along with 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.
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in it.
Besides them, three telecom firms – Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL), Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd — are also accused in the case.
All the accused facing trial in these cases have denied the allegations leveled against them by the CBI and the ED.
The court had in October 2011 framed charges against them under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, using as genuine fake documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe.
In its charge sheet filed in April 2011 against Raja and others, CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.
In the case involving promoters of Essar Group, Loop Telecom and Saraf, three companies – Loop Telecom Ltd, Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Tele Holding Ltd (ETHL) – were also named by the CBI in its charge sheet.
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