2G case: court tells CBI to provide all documents to accused

A special court in Delhi today directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to supply the relevant documents to the accused in the additional spectrum allocation case related to allocations during the earlier NDA regime.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini posted the next hearing for 6 February, after the defence counsel told the court that they needed some documents filed along with the charge-sheet.

The judge directed the investigating agency to supply the documents sought.

The agency said it has already supplied the copies of charge-sheet and documents filed along with it to the accused.

The CBI filed a charge-sheet on 21 December 2012, accusing former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms, Bharti Cellular Ltd, Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd (now Vodafone India Ltd), and Sterling Cellular Ltd (now Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd.).

The case relates to the department of telecommunications (DoT) allocating additional spectrum in a decision taken on 31 January 2002, when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power, allegedly resulting in a loss of Rs846 crore to the exchequer.

Although the CBI did not name Bharti Cellular head Sunil Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia as accused, the special court issued summons to them.

The Supreme Court has quashed the order of the 2G special court summoning Mittal and Ruia as accused in the case (See: SC clears Ruia, Mittal of charges in 2G scam-related case).