The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a two-day extension to the Central Bureau of investigation to file on April 2 its chargesheet against former telecom minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation case, even as the agency said it was readying an 80,000-page document for submission.
In their status reports on the probe into the scam, given to the court in a sealed cover, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate informed a bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly that the case involved large-scale violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act and benami transactions.
After going through the report, the bench allowed the CBI's plea that the agency be granted two more days to file the chargesheet in the case. The court had earlier given the agency a deadline of March 31 for the same. The ED, in its report, said in violation of Reserve Bank of India guidelines, foreign money was invested in many telecom companies after they were granted licences during Raja's tenure as telecom minister.
Giving fresh details about its probe, the ED informed the court that Rs 106.95 crore was received by a telecom company in lieu of just one share, while its market value was just Rs 270. The apex court was also informed that the ED would start attaching and confiscating the properties of erring telecom companies for violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act soon after filing of the chargesheet.
The ED, in its report, also informed the court about various investments made in telecom companies. The investments originated from several foreign countries, it said, and that most of these transactions took place after licences were given to the telecom firms during Raja's tenure.
It told the court that a joint team of the CBI and the ED would be sent to foreign countries, starting from Mauritius, to track the trail of the foreign direct investment in erring telecom companies involved in the 2G scam.
The ED also presented the transcripts of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's telephonic conversations with various people, tapped by the income tax department. The CBI and ED had earlier informed the court that chargesheet would be filed against the former minister on various charges including those of corruption, money-laundering, cheating and forgery.
The Delhi government had on Monday issued a notification designating additional sessions judge Om Prakash Saini as a special judge to exclusively undertake the 2G scam trial. In a separate notification, the finance ministry designated his court as special court to deal with offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Saini had earlier dealt with the case as special CBI judge and all the matters connected to the scam, including a private complaint filed by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy is pending before him. The CBI had informed the apex court that the first chargesheet will be filed against Raja and two companies and later, against other accused persons.
"This is only the beginning and many people and companies would also be chargesheeted later on," the CBI had told the bench which had asked the agency to appoint a suitable prosecutor for the trial.
"Look out for the best man. We want the most competent person to be appointed as the special public prosecutor and he will deal with no other case," the bench had said.
