Notice Issued To Raja, Kanimozhi Following CBI Challenging Their Acquittal
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi asking them to reply the CBI plea that challenged their acquittal in money laundering case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) that’s assisting CBI and looking into financial irregularities of the case too filed a similar petition.
The Delhi Court directed Raja and Kanimozhi to file their replies within two weeks
The hearing on fresh petitions has been listed for 25 May.
The Backdrop
Citing lack of concrete evidence for involvement in the case, a special court had acquitted Raja, Kanimozhi and 17 others including DMK supremo M Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal,
Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goneka of STPL, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Private Ltd, film producer Karim Morani, and P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV.
Former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja’s erstwhile private secretary RK Chandolia, Swan Telecome promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) – Gautam doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair were also acquitted by the earlier court.
The special court set up on 14 March 2011 exclusively for 2G cases also acquitted Essar Group promoters Ravi Kant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and six others in related case.
The firstl case prosecuted by CBI, had 17 accused while the second on filed by ED had 19 undertrials. The third case had eight accused including Essar promoters.
The Case
According to CBI the allocation of 2G spectrum licenses was plagued with irregularities and caused a loss of Rs. 309.84 billion to the exchequer.
The allocation was later quashed by the Supreme Court on 2 February, 2012.
The ED in its chargesheet alleged that Rs. 2 billion was paid by Swan Telecom (P) Ltd (STPL) promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.
The spectrum money laundering case in a big way influence defeat of Congress-led UPA’s in 2014 elections.
Also read : 2G Spectrum, Spl Court releases all accused; Vinod Rai under fire
