2G : Court may decide on framing of charges today

2G : Court may decide on framing of charges today

A Delhi court is likely to pronounce its order on Thursday on framing of charges against 17 accused in the 2G scam including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi.
Special CBI judge O. P. Saini, who heard arguments on behalf of the accused and the CBI for over a month on day-to-day basis, had reserved the order on 29^th August.

Winding up arguments, special CBI Prosecutor U. U. Lalit had said that there was “sufficient prima facie” evidence against all the accused to proceed with the trial as everyone of them was part of the conspiracy and the intent to commit offence “may be inferred from their knowledge”.

On the other hand, all the accused including Raja opposed the framing of charges and the plea of CBI that they caused a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the state exchequer in the grant of spectrum licenses.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, other accused include former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, Raja’s former personal secretary R K Chandolia, DMK-run Kalaignar TV’s MD Sharad Kumar, Bollywood filmmaker Karim Morani and Reliance ADAG executives Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.

The accused also included Unitech Ltd’s MD Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka and directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal.
Meanwhile, former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran was on Wednesday questioned by the CBI for over five hours on alleged irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation during his tenure.
Earlier this week, the agency had questioned his brother Kalanidhi Maran in connection with the preliminary enquiry in spectrum allocation during 2001-07 and allegations of pushing for Aircel takeover by Malaysia-based Maxis group, CBI sources said.