The special court hearing the 2G spectrum allocation cases on Friday reserved for March 18 order on taking cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the CBI against Airtel, Vodafone and others for alleged irregularities in allocation of additional spectrum to them during the National Democratic Alliance regime.
Special Judge O.P. Saini asked the CBI why it was only blaming government servants and not naming any officials of the three charge sheeted companies as accused in the case.
What about private parties?
“In a conspiracy, there must be two parties. You [CBI] are blaming only the government servants. Why not the private persons? Who did the conspiracy with the government servants” he asked.
The CBI prosecutor said the investigating agency could not identify the private persons despite its best efforts. No resolution was passed by these companies for applying for additional spectrum.
In the charge sheet, the CBI claimed that the alleged conspirators were the then Telecom Minister Pramod Mahajan, then Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh and telecom majors Bharti Cellular Limited (now known as Bharti Airtel Limited), Hutchison Max Private Limited Mumbai (now known as Vodafone India) and Sterling Cellular Limited (now known as Vodafone Mobile Services Limited), who allegedly caused a loss of Rs. 846.44 crore to the exchequer.
