2G Scam: Hearing On CBI's Appeal Against Acquittal Of A Raja Begins At Delhi HC

Hearing on CBI's appeal against the acquittal of A Raja and 17 others commenced today before Justice Brijesh Sethi.

Before starting his submissions, ASG Sanjay Jain, who appeared on behalf of the CBI, informed the court that the documents in the present case runs into 800 pages. Therefore, the present matter requires careful scrutiny of the court.

It was also informed to the court by Mr Amit Mahajan, Standing Counsel for Union of India, that the appeal in ED matter cannot be heard before taking up the appeal in the CBI matter.

Therefore, after the permission of the court, ASG started the submissions in the CBI matter where he took the attention of the court to the offences leveled against A Raja and other accused persons.

Thereafter, ASG went on to highlight the modus operandi of the 2G scam wherein he mentioned that there was a criminal conspiracy between officials of the Department of Telecommunications and certain private companies to wrongfully benefit the latter.

It was also mentioned by the ASG that licences were given in 2009 at prices prevailing in 2001. The allocation at such nominal prices caused significant wrongful loss to the public exchequer.

In December 2017, A Raja, Kanimozhi and 17 others were acquitted by a Special CBI Judge in both the CBI and ED cases.

The Special Judge had opined that the prosecution had "miserably failed" to prove the charges against the accused persons.

Challenging the said order of the Special Judge, both the ED and the CBI had approached the Delhi High Court in March 2018.

In July, Justice AK Chawla had rejected CBI's application seeking early hearing of the appeal filed by it against the order passed by the Special Judge acquitting A Raja and others.