Varsha Sriram

Just a week after DMK had a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections winning 37 out of 38 seats in Tamil Nadu, CBI files an application for early hearing in the 2G scam. 

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday has moved the Delhi High Court for advancing the hearing on its appeal against the acquittal of Former Union Telecom Minister A Raja, Kanimozhi and others in the 2G Spectrum allocation case. 

The High Court had earlier listed the matter for hearing on October 24. 

When the plea filed by the CBI was taken up by the High Court, a Single Judge Bench of Justice A K Chawla issued notice to all those who were acquitted in the case on CBI’s plea including Former Union Minister A Raja, newly-elected Thoothukudi MP Kanimozhi and 15 others and also listed the application for hearing on July 30. 

A.K Chawla asked the CBI’s counsel as to why they were seeking an early hearing. “What is the urgency now?” He asked. Responding to him, the Central Government Standing Counsel Ripu Daman Bharadwaj said that the case was of national importance with “international ramifications.”

A Special Court in Delhi acquitted all the 17 accused in the case including in December 2017. In a 1500+ page verdict, CBI judge OP Saini said that due to the lack of evidence mounted by the prosecution, he had no choice but to give a clean chit to the accused and that he was waiting for over seven years to receive a shred of credible evidence. He said, “Some people created a scam by artfully arranging a few selected facts and exaggerating things beyond recognition to astronomical levels.” 

Speaking to TNM, Kanimozhi says, “We have to ask the government why this case is suddenly being expedited. We faced the courts, we didn’t try to postpone or drag the case. We tried to finish it as soon as possible. All those accused were proved to be innocent by the trial court. Judge OP Saini had given a very clear judgement. Why should they expedite the case? But whatever it is we will face it.”

The verdict had acquitted 17 of them, including DMK supremo late M Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal, A Raja, Kanimozhi, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, film producer Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar, Director of Kalaignar TV in the ED case, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja’s erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) — Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair. 

I would love to thank everyone who stood by me: Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP #2GScamVerdict pic.twitter.com/3plOl0RlLE

— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2017

On March 19 last year, the Enforcement Directorate and CBI had approached the high court challenging the special court’s order acquitting all the accused. 

The 2G scam was one of the biggest scams in the country during the UPA regime in 2007. The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 billion to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum. In the case, the 17 accused were tried under provisions of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of conspiracy, cheating, forgery, using as genuine fake documents, abusing official position.

Timeline of the 2G Spectrum case: