2G scam: Court postpones framing of charges against 17 accused including A Raja and Kanimozhi

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court handling the trial of the 2G spectrum scam has deferred its orders on framing of charges against 17 accused including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi.

The framing of charges was postponed after legal counsels for several of the accused demanded that the CBI place reports by the telecom regulator and the law ministry in the court.

Lawyers representing Reliance ADA executives and Swan Telecom promoters' also demanded that the CBI place the 'covering letter' of the Trai report 'on record' slamming the public prosecutor for terming the regulator's report 'unsolicited'.

"How can the court say it will not use an opinion that has come from one arm of the government. It is not possible for the CBI to say that they will not rely upon it. The argument does not survive," Swan Telecom's counsel Amit Desai argued.

The Trai covering letter is crucial to the outcome of the case.

This is because, as first reported by ET last month, the Trai has told the Central Bureau of Investigation that it did not recommend an auction of airwaves or an increase in the entry fee for new players, implying that there was no loss to the exchequer, on account of Raja, giving away mobile permits to nine companies in 2008, at prices fixed in 2001.

In a related development, the CBI special court has decided to hear a petition from Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy that home minister P Chidambaram be made a a co-accused in the second generation (2G) spectrum allocation case. Swamy alleged that Chidambaram, who was the finance minister when Raja had awarded mobile permits in 2008, had colluded with the former telecom minister and the duo had jointly arrived at a decision to sell licences for cheap.

In his application before Special CBI judge OP Saini, Swamy said he wanted to bring "new facts" through his deposition. He also said he wanted the examine CBI officials "to establish the nexus of accused persons with others, who have intentionally not been made accused by the prosecuting agency".

"There is enough evidence to establish that Raja and Chidambaram were solely responsible for fixing selling mobile permits at 2001 prices," he said.

CBI OPPOSES CHANDRA'S BAIL PLEA
The CBI on Thursday opposed the bail pleas of Unitech Wireless' MD Sanjay Chandra and Swan Telecom's director Vinod Goenka in the Supreme Court in 2G spectrum allocation case, Our New Delhi Bureau reports. "In corruption cases, right to liberty of the accused has to be seen in the light of larger public interest," CBI's counsel and Additional Solicitor General, Harin Raval, told SC bench.

"There is every likelihood that the petitioners may tamper with evidence and influence vital witnesses which will eventually hamper the proper and effective trial in this case to reach a logical conclusion," the agency said in its affidavit. Chandra, through his counsel Ram Jethmalani, however, had told the apex court that the CBI's charges against him in the 2G spectrum allocation case had no basis in law seeking order to release him on bail.