Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the Special Judge also acquitted Shahid Balwa, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, Rajiv Aggarwal, Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar in connection with the case.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
Agencies
In its final report, the ED had named 10 individuals and nine companies as accused and listed them in the charge sheet for the offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will appeal the judgement of the CBI special court that acquitted all the accused in the 2G case and ordered the release of assets seized in a money-laundering case that branched out of the alleged scam in spectrum allocation.
Officials at the finance ministry wing that probes money-laundering cases said they would study the order and appeal in the high court with the evidence found during investigation.
In his 105-page order, Special Judge OP Saini on Thursday said he found “no proceeds of crime” and that this had “knocked out” the “very basic fact required for constitution of an offence of money laundering”.
The judge ordered for release property worth Rs 223.55 crore, which belonged to the DB Group of companies and their associates, after the time for filing for appeal was over. He also cancelled the bail bonds of the accused and discharged sureties that had been filed with the court.
ED officials said they would see if the case was rejected merely because the predicate offence probe of the CBI had been rejected or were there other reasons as well.
The agency had alleged in its charge-sheet that former telecom minister A Raja had received illegal gratification of Rs 200 crore for favouring Swan Telecom Private Ltd to receive 13 telecom licences and related airwaves in 2008-09. The money, it had alleged, was paid by the DB Group owned by Shahid Balwa, and routed through partner companies and Kalaignar TV, owned by MP Kanimozhi and Dayalu Ammal, one of the wives of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi.
