‘Miserable failure’: Court acquits all
The special court declared ‘not guilty’ all 35 accused in one of the most highprofile cases in recent years. The judge slammed the investigators, and ruled that ‘highprofile political corruption’ was not established against anyone charged by CBI or ED
NEW DELHI: Former telecom minister, A Raja, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Rajya Sabha MP K 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 Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate in the case. HT presents critical extracts from the judgement.
The court ruled ‘no evidence of cheating’ or ‘criminal breach of trust’ was made out against the accused.
Assailing the CBI for charges levelled against the accused, the court recorded: “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 the witnesses have not owned up in the witness box. Lastly, if statements were made orally by the witnesses, 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 (Department of Telecommunications), the Law Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office, shows that the controversy about the issue of LOIs (letters of intent) on 10.01.2008 and subsequent grant of licences and allocation of spectrum arose due to unnecessary questions and objections raised by some of the officials and unwarranted suggestions put forward by others. None of these suggestions were carried to logical conclusion and were left unaddressed in between. These were used by others to create unnecessary controversy.”
The court even criticised the delay in recording of witness statements. “It is thus clear that three most important functionaries of the DoT were examined by the CBI at a highly belated stage. This unwarranted delay in the examination of important witnesses coupled with the type of hype around the case indicates that the witnesses may be under pressure or were 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 for the prosecution. “No witness from DoT deposed that any deception was practised by any of the accused. There is absolutely no evidence to the effect that any false representation was made by any of the accused . ... Accordingly, there is absolutely no evidence of cheating on record.
Criticising the role of telecom ministry officials in the case, the court asserted “Notes recorded by various officers in the files are in highly illegible handwriting which are difficult to read and understand. Furthermore, the notes are either cryptic, even telegraphic, or extremely lengthy, recorded in highly technical... 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.”
It has been repeatedly proven that the presumptive loss to the exchequer which formed the basis for the conspiracy theorists to run amok, was cookedup. A RAJA, former telecom 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 #Congress is shamelessly celebrating #2GScamVerdict. @INCIndia should remember that SC had cancelled 2G licenses issued during Congled #UPA Govt. PRAKASH JAVADEKAR, Union minister, on Twitter 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