No evidence of any cheating: Court

Pick by pick, the special court stamped ‘not guilty’ on everyone accused as per the charges levelled by the CBI in the most highprofile case of corruption from the UPA era. It summed up the case as thus: misreading, selective reading, nonreading, out of

NEWDELHI:Former telecom minister A Raja, DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and 33 other accused including companies were given a clean chit by the 2G special court in New Delhi on Thursday, when it ruled that ‘case of high political corruption’ was not made out against any one charged by the CBI and ED.

Touted to have caused a loss of ~1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer, the court ruled ‘no evidence of cheating’ or ‘criminal breach of trust’ was made out against any of the accused.

Assailing the CBI charges, the court said: “The charge sheet is based mainly on misreading, selective reading, non-reading and out of context reading of the official record. Further, it is based on some oral statements made by the witnesses during investigation, which they have not owned up in the witness box. Lastly, if statements were made orally, the same were contrary to the official record and thus, not acceptable in law.”

The court also said, “examination of the action or inaction of officials belonging to various departments, that is, DoT, law ministry, finance ministry and the PMO, shows that the controversy about the issue of LOIs on 10.01.2008 and subsequent grant of licences and allocation of spectrum arose due to unnecessary questions and objections raised by some officials and unwarranted suggestions put forward by others. None of these suggestions were carried to logical conclusion and were left unaddressed. These were used by others to create controversy. “

The court criticised the delay in recording of witness statements. “It is clear that three most important functionaries of the DoT were examined by the CBI at a highly belated stage. “This unwarranted delay coupled with the type of hype around the case indicates the witnesses may be under pressure or even coerced to toe the prosecution line.”

Acquitting the 35 individuals and companies in the case, the court said there was not one credible witness. “No witness from DoT deposed that any deception was practised upon him by any of the accused. There is absolutely no evidence to the effect that any false representation was made. Hence, there is no merit in the submission that by altering this note, Raja and Behura cheated DoT officials into believing that the altered policy had the concurrence of learned SG. Accordingly, there is absolutely no evidence of cheating on record.”

Criticising the role of Telecom ministry officials, the court asserted, “Notes recorded by various officers are in highly illegible handwriting. Furthermore, the notes are either cryptic, even telegraphic, or extremely lengthy, recorded in highly technical and layered language, which cannot easily be understood by others, but can conveniently be used for finding fault with the superior authorities for agreeing to or disagreeing from it, as the case may be. Notes have also been recorded on extreme margins of the note sheet, some of which have become frayed with the passage of time and cannot be read and understood properly. Nonunderstanding of the official notes by outside agency creates an impression of wrongdoing.

I am glad that the court has pronounced unambiguously that all this massive propaganda which was being done against the UPA was without any foundation

MANMOHAN SINGH, former Prime Minister

One thing is clear... the allegation of a major scam involving the highest levels of government was never true and not correct and that has been established today

P CHIDAMBARAM, senior Congress leader

The Congress is treating 2G verdict as a badge of honour, but its zero loss theory was proven wrong when the Supreme Court quashed spectrum allocation in February 2012

ARUN JAITLEY, Union finance minister

Does the verdict mean that there was no scam in the first place? Those who raised the allegation of scam are now ruling the country. It is up to them to clarify.

SANJAY RAUT, Shiv Sena MP