Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: A special 2G court in Delhi will hear the additional spectrum case which was stalled during the rule of the previous NDA government.
However, the hearing will be sans Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia.
The hearing of the case has been put on halt since April 26, 2013 after an interim order from the apex court which said the proceedings against Sunil Mittal and Ravi Ruia will remain "postponed" untill further orders.
Howerever, last week the apex court cleared the deck in the case by setting aside the lower court's order summoning Mittal and Ruia observing that principle of 'alter ego' has wrongly been applied by the trial judge in seeking presence of both the top corporate honchos as accused.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu had also said that trial court had issued summons on an "erroneous presumption in law", but it can summon Mittal and Ruia if incriminating materials are found against them.
Besides Mittal and Ruia, the trial court had also summoned Canada-based NRI Asim Ghosh, who was then a managing director of accused firm Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd, as accused.
Mittal, Ruia and Asim Ghosh were not named as accused in the CBI charge sheet.
Special CBI judge O P Saini would tomorrow hear the case against ex-telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom companies -- Bharti Cellular Ltd, Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd (now known as Vodafone India Ltd) and Sterling Cellular Ltd (now known as Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd).
Shyamal Ghosh and the three firms were named as accused in the CBI's charge sheet filed on December 21, 2012.
The trial court, in its order summoning Mittal and Ruia, had said that as they used to chair board meetings, they "were/are prima facie in control of affairs of the respective companies" and "they are/were 'alter-ego' of their respective companies" and hence, criminal acts of firms can be imputed to them also.
CBI, in its charge sheet, had named Shyamal Ghosh and the three telecom companies as accused in the case relating to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allocating additional spectrum which had allegedly resulted in a loss of Rs 846 crore to the exchequer.
In the 57-page charge sheet, CBI has booked Shyamal Ghosh and the three firms for the offences of criminal conspiracy (120-B) of the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
With PTI Inputs
