2G scam: 153 witnesses’ statements taken

TNN | Nov 28, 2013, 04.41 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Two years after the commencement of trial in the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam, a special CBI court on Wednesday concluded recording statement of 153 prosecution witnesses in the case involving former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and some top corporate honchos. CBI said they are closing their evidence in the case after the judge concluded the recording of statement of CBI's superintendent of police Vivek Priyadarshi, the chief investigating officer in the case. "I close the prosecution evidence," senior public prosecutor K K Goel told Special CBI Judge OP Saini. 

The court has recorded statements of high-profile witnesses including Reliance ADAG chairman Anil Ambani, his wife Tina Ambani, former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and attorney general GE Vahanvati, running into over 4,400 pages in the case involving Raja and 16 others. The court has posted the matter for January 20 when the accused in the case are likely to record their statements under section 313 of CrPc. 

In the meantime, the court will continue recording of evidence of CBI witnesses in the case involving promoters of Essar Group, Loop Telecom and others, who have been arrayed as accused in a case linked to the 2G scam. In the case against promoters of Essar group, Loop Telecom and others, the court has till now recorded statements of 83 prosecution witnesses. 

The trial in the case involving Raja and 16 others, had begun on November 11, 2011 after the court framed charges against all the accused, including three telecom firms saying there was sufficient prima facie evidence against them. The court had on October 22, 2011 framed charges against them under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe. 

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

The proceedings in the case, conducted by the special CBI court set up exclusively to deal with the 2G spectrum case, is also being monitored by the Supreme Court. Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary RK Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) — Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair — are facing trial in the case. 

Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in the case. Besides these 14 accused persons, three telecom firms — Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL), Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd — are also facing trial in the case. They have been arrayed as accused in the first two CBI charge sheets filed on April 2 and 25, 2011 respectively.