New Delhi: A Delhi court Wednesday concluded recording of defence evidence in 2G spectrum allocation case involving former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and 15 others, three years after commencement of trial.
The court fixed November 10 for hearing final arguments in the case in which the CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini, who is exclusively dealing with 2G scam cases, concluded recording of defence evidence in the case in which the agency had examined 153 witnesses while the accused called 29 witnesses in their defence.
The judge fixed the case for final arguments on November 10 as the case involving promoters of Essar Group, Loop Telecom and others, Enforcement Directorate's money laundering case and Aircel-Maxis deal case are listed for hearing during this period.
"Accordingly, put up the matter for final arguments on November 10, 2014, as before that cases titled as CBI Vs Ravi Kant Ruia and others, Directorate of Enforcement Vs A Raja and others and CBI Vs Dayanidhi Maran and others are listed for defence evidence, arguments on charge and consideration of cognizance respectively," the judge said.
The court also said that in the case involving Raja and 16 others, five accused had not wished to lead evidence in their defence.
"I may add that out of the 17 accused, five accused, that is, Vinod Goenka, Swan Telecom (P) Limited (now Etisalat DB Telecom (P) Limited), Gautam Doshi, Reliance Telecom Ltd and Kanimozhi Karunanithi had said in their statement under section 313 CrPC itself that they do not wish to lead defence evidence," the judge said.
The court also observed that co-accused Asif Balwa and Karim Morani had earlier desired to lead defence evidence but they did not examine any witness and their statements were recorded accordingly.
"Remaining 10 accused have examined witnesses in their defence and their statements closing defence evidence have been recorded separately. In this way, defence evidence for all the 17 accused is complete," the court said.
The judge also said, "I may further add that about 1,150 miscellaneous applications were filed by parties in this case and all, but one filed by the prosecution and the one filed by Vijay Aggarwal, Advocate, stand disposed of."
The court would tomorrow hear the CBI's plea seeking its permission to summon some persons as prosecution witnesses, including ED's Deputy Director Rajeshwar Singh, in connection with the case.
CBI had said these persons were required to be examined as witnesses in the case as some new facts have emerged in the probe conducted by ED which had filed a separate charge sheet against 19 accused in a 2G scam-related money laundering case.
The recording of evidence in the case involving Raja and 16 others had started on November 11, 2011, after the court had framed charges against the 17 accused named in the first two charge sheets filed by the agency.
The court has recorded statements of 153 CBI witnesses, including Reliance ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani, his wife Tina Ambani and former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, running into over 4,400 pages in the case.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair -- are facing trial in the case.
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in the case.
Besides these 14 accused persons, three telecom firms -- Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL), Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd -- are facing trial in the case.
The court had on October 22, 2011 framed charges against them under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe.
The offences entail punishment ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment.
