SC not to look into nexus allegations in 2G case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused a plea that sought to look into the alleged nexus between the prosecution and high-profile accused during the trial of 2G case.

A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan rejected a plea seeking CBI response on the allegation saying that the bench was monitoring only the probe and not the on-going trial.

Advocate Pranav Sachdeva, appearing for the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), referred to its interlocutory application and urged the court to issue notice to the CBI.

The NGO had brought to the notice of the court “certain disturbing developments” by relying on a news channel’s sting operation purportedly showing CBI prosecutor A K Singh discussing legal strategy with Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra, an accused in the case.
Meanwhile, the court noted some progress made by the CBI in its probe in Malaysia and Mauritius into the Aircel-Maxis deal.

Perusing CBI’s status report submitted in sealed cover, the bench, however, pointed out to some difficulties in the investigation into the approval granted by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to the 2006 deal, involving the then DMK leader and telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran.

During the hearing, the bench directed the CBI to produce its status report directly to the court instead of first submitting it to the Central Vigilance Commission, which can send its comments two weeks after.

Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, submitted that the probe, being conducted across several countries including UK, Bermuda Island and Northern Ireland, was now getting a little prompt response due to the terror funding becoming a major issue across the globe.

“When we were the only victims of terrorism, nobody bothered. After all of them were
attacked, they started bothering. Perhaps that is how government functions everywhere,” the court observed.

The court said it would now take up the case for hearing in July.