2G scam-tainted firms question CBI court's jurisdiction

Two companies, which are accused in one of the 2G spectrum allocation cases, moved a petition in a special court on Wednesday, questioning its jurisdiction to hear the case against them.

Hutchison Max Private Limited and Sterling Cellular Limited moved separate petitions questioning the jurisdiction of the special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The move came on a day when arguments on the point of framing of charges against all the accused and a bail application of former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh were to be heard by the court.

The court had to fix another date for hearing on the framing of charges as well as Ghosh’s bail application, as the senior public prosecutor of the CBI, K K Goel, sought time to prepare its response to the petitions filed by Hutchison Max Private Limited and Sterling Cellular Limited. “Put up the matter for reply, if any, and disposal of two applications as well as disposal of bail application of accused Shyamal Ghosh/arguments on charge on March 25, 2015, as prayed by both parties,” Special CBI Judge O P Saini said.

CBI told to reply

The court also directed the CBI to come up with its reply to the petition, filed by the two accused firms, on March 25. Hutchison Max Private Limited and Sterling Cellular Limited have been charge-sheeted by the CBI for causing an estimated loss of Rs 846 crore to the public exchequer due to allocation of additional spectrum during the 2002 NDA regime. Ghosh and Bharti Cellular Limited are also accused in the case.

This is second time the court has deferred the hearing on the point of framing charges and bail application of Ghosh. On February 19, the court had deferred the same hearing after the defence sought a short adjournment for perusal of case records, saying it was quite voluminous.

The CBI, too, did not oppose the defence counsel’s plea. On February 6, the court deferred the hearing after the defence pleaded for it, submitting that they needed some documents from CBI which were filed along with the charge sheet.

Hearing of the case has virtually been stalled since April 26, 2013, after the Supreme Court passed an interim order holding that proceedings will remain “postponed” until further orders as Bharti Cellular Ltd CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia had challenged the special CBI court’s order to summon them as accused.

The apex court, however, recently paved the way for beginning of hearing in the case after quashing the special CBI court’s order against Mittal and Ruia.
Meanwhile, a list of 400 questions, which runs into 225 pages, was supplied to the accused of the money laundering case in the 2G spectrum allocation case for recording of their statement on March 16.

The hearing of this case is nearing an end with the special court closing the recording of prosecution evidence and fixing the date for recording of the statement of former telecom minister A Raja and 18 others, who allegedly connived with each other in “parking” a bribe of Rs 200 crore at Kalignar Television Limited.