2G spectrum: Mittal, Ruia appear in Delhi court

Bharti CMD Sunil Mittal and Essar group promoter Ravi Ruia, who have been summoned as accused in the additional 2G spectrum allocation case, today appeared in a Delhi court which posted the matter for further proceedings on April 16.

Mittal's counsel placed before special CBI judge O P Saini the order passed by the Supreme Court postponing till April 16 the proceedings in the case.

Besides Mittal and Ruia, former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh, who was summoned by the special CBI judge, also appeared in pursuance to the summons issued against him.

The court, after going through the apex court's order on separate petitions filed by Mittal and Ruia, listed the matter on April 16 for further proceedings. The apex court will hear their pleas on April 15.

The special court on March 19 summoned Mittal, Ruia, who was then a Director in one of

the accused companies Sterling Cellular Ltd and Asim Ghosh, the then Managing Director of accused firm Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd.

Their names were not mentioned in the charge sheet filed by CBI on December 21, last year in the case.

Besides the three, the court had also summoned as accused Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms Bharti Cellular Ltd, Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd (now known as Vodafone India Ltd) and Sterling Cellular Ltd (now known as Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd).

The three telecom firms were represented by their counsel in the court on Thursday.

CBI, in its charge sheet, had named the three telecom companies as accused in the case relating to the Department of Telecommunication allocating additional spectrum which had allegedly resulted in a loss of Rs 846 crore (Rs 8.46 billion) to the exchequer.

During the proceedings, the court was told that the summons against Canada-based NRI Asim Ghosh had ‘remained unserved’.