A special court here on Saturday dismissed 10 applications filed by former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and others challenging its jurisdiction to hear corruption and money laundering cases against them arising out of the Aircel-Maxis deal.
The applicants, challenging the jurisdiction of the special court, argued that it had been constituted exclusively to try 2G spectrum cases arising out of the 2G scam, and their cases had no connection with the 2G cases.
Dismissing the applications, Special Judge O.P. Saini said: “There is no manner of doubt that by the standard of subject matter and periodicity of the alleged crime, the cases fairly and squarely fall within the description/ designation of 2G scam.’’ “There is no doubt that all these applications are devoid of even an iota of merit and are accordingly dismissed,’’ the Judge said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is prosecuting them for corruption charges, while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the money laundering charges.
Counsel for the accused argued that monitoring of the investigation of the instant cases by the Supreme Court did not make them part of the 2G scam while the prosecution counter it saying that the monitoring was the determining factor to decide if these cases were related to the 2G scam or not.
