The Enforcement Directorate has challenged the acquittal of former telecom minister A Raja, DMK leader Kanimozhi, and others in the 2G Scam case. The ED has filed a charge sheet in which it has mentioned that INR 200 Crores were paid by the promoters of Swan Telecom to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.
Notably, 17 accused including Mr. A Raja, Kanimozhi and others were acquitted by a special court in New Delhi in December 2017 in the politically sensitive 2G scam case. Others include M Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal, Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom, film producer Karim Morani, Asif Balwa and Raji Agarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, Sharad Kumar, and P Amirtham.
The court had stated that the prosecution “miserably failed” to prove the charges. Judge OP Saini had said that CBI failed to prove that Mr Raja with other had conspired to receive kickbacks from the sale of phone permits, thereby causing a loss worth INR 1.76 Lakh Crores to the government.
However, ED has challenged this acquittal by stating that the court has only focused on the CBI case while the “clinching evidence” provided by the ED that clearly proved the criminal conspiracy and bribery was simply avoided.
It was back in 2010 when the national Auditor CAG said submitted a report mentioned that there have been massive irregularities in the allocation of 2G licenses while A Raja was the telecom minister. It also reported that Raja allotted 2G spectrum licenses at throwaway prices, thereby causing a loss of INR 1.76 Lakhs to the government.
After that, A Raja was forced to resign before the CAG report was tabled in the parliament. He was also jailed for 15 months in the case. The trial began in 2011 but in December 2017, all accused were acquitted.
The first case was prosecuted by CBI whereby 17 people were accused while the second one was pursued by ED which had 19 under trails. There was a third one having 8 accused including Essar promoters.
