ED challenges acquittal of A Raja, Kanimozhi, others in 2G scam

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday has challenged the acquittal of former telecom minister A Raja, DMK leader Kanimozhi and others in 2G spectrum scam case, news agency PTI reported.

In December, 2017, Raja, Kanimozhi and all 19 accused were acquitted in the politically-sensitive 2G spectrum allocation scam cases by a special court in Delhi which held that the prosecution "miserably failed" to prove the charges.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, Special Judge OP Saini also acquitted Shahid Balwa, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, Rajiv Aggarwal, Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar in connection with the case.

Special Judge OP Saini had in his 1,552-page verdict said, "I have no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well-choreographed chargesheet. All 17 accused are acquitted."

"I have absolutely no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well choreographed chargesheet," the judge had said.

"The genesis of the case lies not so much in the actions of A Raja but in the action/inaction of others. There is no material on record to show that A Raja was mother lode of conspiracy in the instant case," the court said.

The “2G” trial commenced in 2011, a year after the national auditor Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai said in his report that there had been massive irregularities in allocation of 2G licences when Raja was the telecom minister.

Vinod Rai alleged in a scathing report that Raja caused the tax payers a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore by allotting 2G spectrum licenses at throwaway prices.

Subsequently, Raja was forced to resign in 2010, a month prior to when the CAG report was to be tabled in parliament and later was jailed for 15 months in the case.