A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted all accused, including former Telecom Minister A. Raja and DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
The CBI had chargesheeted Mr. Raja, Ms. Kanimozhi, the then Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, Mr. Raja’s former private secretary R.K. Chandolia, Unitech Wireless Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom Director and DB Realty MD Vinod Goenka, and Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s (R-ADAG) Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt. Ltd. Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Bollywood producer Karim Morani, Kalaignar TV director Sharad Kumar.
The accused also include Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB), Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd and Reliance Telecom Ltd.
Ms Kanimozhi told The Hindu that Congress president Rahul Gandhi congratulated her on her acquittal. “It is a big day for all of us,” Ms. Kanimozhi quoted him as telling her.
“I have always believed that I would see the light at the end of tunnel,” said Ms Kanimozhi. ”I have been waiting these last six years for this day,” she told mediapersons in New Delhi.
“I was made an accused just because I was a director in a company and for only 20 days, where I had not attended even a single Board meeting and where I had not signed a single document,” she said. “This speaks of the depth to which the system stooped to ensure that I was dragged in so that the DMK is defeated in the elections which was hardly 5 months away. There is no evidence against me and justice has been delivered.”
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal wondered how everyone were acquitted from a case touted to be one of the biggest scams. “2G scam is one of the biggest scams. It rocked the country n was one of the reasons for UPA’s downfall. Today everyone goes scot free. Did CBI mess up the case? Intentionally? People need answers,” he said.
The CAG report should never be treated as final. We have been maintaining that there was not enough evidence, said Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the “massive propaganda” against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on 2G spectrum was without any foundation.
“I don’t want to boast anything. The court’s judgment has to be respected. The court has pronounced unambiguously that the massive propaganda against the UPA was unfounded. The judgement speaks for itself,” he said.
In probably his first words since abstaining from public life for quite sometime now due to health issues, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi wrote in Tamil after the verdict, Aneedhi veezhum. Aram vellum (injustice will be defeated. Justice will prevail).
Refraining to comments on the verdict, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took a dig at the Congress, reminding his rival party that the UPA’s policy on awarding spectrum was already rapped by the Supreme Court.
“This was a corrupt and dishonest policy, which has already been upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012. Congress leaders are treating this judgement [2G Verdict] as some kind of a badge of honour and a certification that it was an honest policy,” he said.