Special 2G court earlier acquitted A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others in a money-laundering case in connection with 2G spectrum allocation case (FileFormer Telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi opposed in Delhi High Court the ED’s appeal challenging their acquittal in a 2G scam case, saying the trial court has rightly held that “since there were no proceeds of crime, hence no case of money laundering could subsist”.
Two more accused, Vinod Goenka and Asif Balwa, also filed replies to the ED’s appeal against a special judge’s December 2017 verdict, acquitting 19 accused.
The accused said in the reply filed before Justice Najmi Waziri that they “have faced the ordeal of day to day trial for seven years”.
Balwa said the ED’s application is liable to be dismissed as it “is without any merits and is against the principles of law”.
Raja said in his reply that “reasoning of the Special Judge ought not to be assailed in a perfunctory manner by the ED, as has been done in the instant appeal”.
Advocates Sushil Bajaj and Tarannum Cheema, filing the reply on behalf of Kanimozhi, said, “the trial court in an exhaustive verdict spanning nearly 1500 pages…dealt with every possible aspect of the prosecution case and after marshalling the evidence led by the parties, reached the conclusion that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove any allegation…”
“…Examining the case of the ED, the trial court recorded a categorical finding that the very basic fact required for constitution of an offence of money laundering, that is proceeds of crime, is knocked out. The trial court rightly held that since there were no proceeds of crime, hence no case of money laundering could subsist…” the reply said.
