The fate of ex-Union Minister A. Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, officials and corporate executives will be decided on Thursday, when a Special Court pronounces its verdict in the 2G spectrum allocation cases .
The court will pronounce judgment in two cases related to the scam: one is of corruption charges and the other is filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
- A. Raja: Former Union Minister
- Sharad Kumar: Managing Director, Kalaignar TV
- Kanimozhi: Director, Kalaignar TV
- Shahid Balwa: Swan Telecom
- Siddhartha Behura: Sectretary, Department of Telecom
- Ravindra Kumar Chandolia: Private Secretary to Minister
- Vinod Goenka: Swan Telecom
- Karin Morani: Cineyug Films
- M/s Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd.
- Sanjay Chandra: MD, Unitech Wireless
- M/s Unitech Wireless
- Gautam Doshi: Reliance Group
- Surendra Pipara: Reliance Group
- Hari Nair: Reliance Group
- M/s Reliance Telecom Ltd
- Asif Balwa: Kusegaon Fruits
In the corruption case related to the spectrum allocation, the CBI in its report alleged that offences pertaining to five main issues — the cut-off date, violations of the first come, first served policy, dual technology approvals and spectrum allocation, eligibility of companies, and cheating the government exchequer by non-revision of the entry fee —were committed.
The investigating agency, in its chargesheet filed in 2011, alleged Mr. Raja, in conspiracy with his former private secretary R.K. Chandolia, decided the cut-off date for consideration of applications to be received up to September 25, 2007, to wrongly benefit accused Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director, Unitech Ltd., Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt. Ltd., Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd.
Also read: 2G case: A chronology of events
The prosecution examined 153 witnesses, including the chairman of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Anil Ambani, his wife Tina Ambani and corporate lobbyist Nira Radia. The Ambani couple had turned hostile.
The evidence from 29 defence witnesses was also recorded by the court.
Key charges
Conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery for cheating and sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The main charge is that a criminal conspiracy was hatched to cheat DoT and secure allotment of Universal Access System Licence/Spectrum for ineligible companies, M/s Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and M/s Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt. Ltd.
Allocation was made in 2008 without auction or any revision in the entry fee discovered by auction in 2001, resulting in companies gaining pecuniary advantage.
Raja, Behura and Chandolia manipulated the system to benefit the two companies. The cut-off date for considering applications on first-come, first-served basis was advanced by Raja to favour the two companies.
Raja struck off a para in a press release approved by the Solicitor General, deleting a reference to determining priority among applicants on the basis if date of application.
In lieu of licence and spectrum, Dynamix Realty, a partnership firm of DB Realty Ltd., and other DB Group companies, paid Rs. 200 crore to Kalaignar TV Pvt. Ltd. in December 2008-August 2009 through a circuitous route involving Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd (a DB Group company) and Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd.
The money was paid to Kalaignar TV. Enforcement Directorate has a separate case of money laundering on this.
CBI alleges that the accused caused a loss of Rs. 30, 984 crore . This was the additional revenue that could have come in, had prices been fixed after taking into account the sector's growth between the years 2002 and 2007.
Compiled by K. Venkataramanan
