NEW DELHI, Sept 17: A Delhi court today issued notices to 17 accused facing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation case for their reply on a CBI plea seeking summoning of additional prosecution witnesses, including Enforcement Directorate Deputy Director Rajeshwar Singh, in the matter.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini, who had reserved the order for today on CBI’s plea, sought response of the 17 accused, including former Telecom Minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi, on September 23 after the agency placed some new facts before the court.
The court said it would hear the submissions of the accused before deciding on CBI’s plea.
CBI had moved the application seeking the court’s permission to summon some prosecution witnesses and to place additional documents on record saying they were necessary to arrive at the truth.
Besides Rajeshwar Singh, CBI has sought permission to call ED’s Assistant Director Satyendra Singh, Under Secretary of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Navil Kapur and bank official D Mani.
Apart from these four persons, the agency has sought to recall General Manager (Finance) of Kalaignar TV (P) Ltd G Rajendran, who had earlier deposed as a witness in the case, for further examination.
In its plea, CBI has said these persons were required to be examined as witnesses as some new facts have emerged in the investigation conducted by the ED which has recently filed a separate charge sheet against 19 accused in a 2G scam related money laundering case.
The court has closed the defence evidence in the case and fixed the matter for November 10 for hearing final arguments.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, 12 individuals and three companies are facing trial in the case.
The court had earlier pulled up CBI for “withholding”
documents and observed that if the situation goes on like this, the cases would be “endless” and nobody would have “faith” in judiciary.
During the earlier hearings, special public prosecutor Anand Grover had told the court that new material which CBI was seeking to place on record would show if Kanimozhi was an active director in Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd.
He had submitted that materials would also show whether the money transactions between different entities, including Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd, were genuine business transactions or they were proceeds of crime.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Sidharth Behura, Raja’s erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, Reliance ADAG executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair are facing trial in the case.
Bollywood producer Karim Morani, Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharad Kumar and Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, are also facing trial.
Besides them, three telecom firms — Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd — are also accused in the case.
Raja, Kanimozhi, Shahid Balwa, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, Rajiv Agarwal, Karim Morani and Sharad Kumar, along with others, were also chargesheeted by ED in the money laundering case. (PTI)
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