Court order due today on prosecuting 2G scam accused

A special CBI court in Delhi is expected to pronounce its order today on framing charges against the 17 accused in the 2G spectrum case, including DMK leaders A Raja, the former telecom minister, and Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi.

Special judge O P Saini, has heard arguments on behalf of the accused and the Central Bureau of Investigation for over a month on a virtually daily basis, had on 29 August reserved its order till today.

Winding up arguments, special CBI prosecutor U U Lalit had told the court that there was sufficient prima facie evidence against all the accused to proceed with the trial, as each and every one of them was part of the conspiracy to sell spectrum and operating licences cheap to select companies, and the intent to commit offence "may be inferred from their knowledge".

All the accused opposed the framing of charges, seeking to rebut the CBI argument that they caused a loss of Rs30,984 crore to the state exchequer in the grant of spectrum licenses.

They said the case cannot stand legal scrutiny as both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the present telecom minister Kapil Sibal were on the record as saying that the state did not incur any loss through the sale of spectrum.

Raja and some others also said they may seek to examine the prime minister as a witness to prove that there was no loss to the exchequer.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, other prominent accused include former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, Raja's former personal secretary R K Chandolia, DMK-run Kalaignar TV's managing director Sharad Kumar, Bollywood filmmaker Karim Morani and Reliance ADAG executives Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.

They also include Unitech Ltd managing director Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, and directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal.