Judgement in 2G scam case shortly

A special CBI court is set to pronounce its verdict in the multi-crore 2G spectrum allocations cases against former telecom minister A Raja, DMK chief M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi and others on Thursday.

The court's verdict comes more than eight years after the CBI filed an FIR against "unknown persons"  and began its investigations following a recommendation  by the Central Vigilance Commission.

The trial of the case began after the CBI filed a charge sheet in the court against a total of nine persons and three telecom companies on April 2, 2011, claiming that the irregularities in the allocations of the 2G spectrum caused a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the public exchequer.

In  the charge sheet, the CBI named Raja, his private secretary R K Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, as well as the managing director of the Gurgaon-based companies  Unitech and Unitech Wireless Sanjay Chandra as accused in the case.

According to the CBI, Raja "illegally" granted 2G spectrum licences to "ineligible" companies, including Unitech and  Swan Telecom,  for a bribe of over Rs 200 crore.

The Reliance  group had created the  Swan Telecom as its "front company" and infused thousands of crores in it to obtain radio waves in violation of the rules.

The Enforcement Directorate had filed a separate money laundering case against the accused in 2015.

The accused have been charged with various sections of the Indian penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act pertaining to offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe.

The offences entail punishments ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment.