2G scam: Framing of charges against 17 accused Saturday

By IANS,

New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court here hearing the 2G spectrum allocation scam will pronounce its order on framing of charges against former communications minister A. Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and 15 others Saturday.


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On Oct 14, CBI Special Judge O.P. Saini had reserved the order till Oct 22.

In the process of framing of charges, the court decides as to who among the accused has sufficient prima facie evidence against him to be put on trial.

Earlier, the court reserved its order after Special Public Prosecutor U.U. Lalit wrapped up his rebuttal arguments on framing of additional charges of criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against all the 17 accused.

The special court set up to try the 2G scam accused reserved its order a day after a Supreme Court bench monitoring the case asked CBI as to how long it was going to keep the accused in jail.

The bench observed that the 2G case accused have been behind bars for over seven months now, while the court was yet to decide on framing of charges in the case.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, other accused in the case include Raja’s former private secretary R.K. Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura and DMK-run Kalaignar TV’s chief Sharad Kumar.

Bollywood filmmaker Karim Morani, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, his cousin Asif Balwa, their colleague Rajeev B. Agarwal, Unitech Ltd’s MD Sanjay Chandra are among other accused.

The CBI chargesheet accuses Raja and others of causing a whopping loss of Rs.30,984 crore to the exchequer by allocating spectrum to ineligible operators as per a criminal conspiracy among themselves.

Their act also involved commission of penal offences of forgery and cheating, besides the misuse of official position by public servants as per the provisions of the Anti Corruption Act.

Towards the fag end of conclusion of argument on framing of charges, the CBI had also sought slapping of the charge of criminal breach of trust against the accused. The new charge entails a sentence of life term on conviction.

All the accused have vehemently opposed the allegations levelled against them by the CBI.

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