A special court had on December 21 last year acquitted A Raja, Kanimozhi and others in the cases registered by the CBI and the ED in the 2G case.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others on CBI plea challenging their acquittal in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. The high court also said the status quo will be maintained with regard to properties attached by the Enforcement Directorate in PMLA case, reports PTI. The case will be next heard on May 25, reports ANI.
A special court had on December 21 last year acquitted Raja, Kanimozhi and others in the cases registered by the CBI and the ED. The CBI moved the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, a day after ED moved the high court against their acquittal.
Deprived party can go for appeal, that is a statutory right… Suppose if I am convicted am I not entitled to appeal? That is quite natural, noting special.. it was 100% anticipated: A. Raja on CBI & ED moving higher court in 2G Scam Case acquittal. pic.twitter.com/qsk0WsSliY
— ANI (@ANI) March 21, 2018
CBI officials said they had received a certified copy of the lower court judgment on January 15 and had time until April 15 to file an appeal against the acquittals.
Justice S P Garg also issued another notice to Raja, Kanimozhi and others on a CBI plea challenging the special court order acquitting them in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the special court had 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, P Amirtham and Director of Kalaignar TV Sharad Kumar in the ED case.
The ED, in its chargesheet, had alleged that Rs 200 crore was paid by Swan Telecom (P) Ltd (STPL) promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV. On the same day, a trial court had acquitted Raja, Kanimozhi and 15 others, including 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 – in the CBI’s 2G case.
The CBI had alleged there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for 2G spectrum, which were scrapped by the top court on February 2, 2012.
Special Judge O P Saini, during acquittal, had held that the prosecution had “miserably failed” to prove the charges. 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.
(with PTI inputs)