NEW DELHI: Acting on the Supreme Court directive, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has called the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department to furnish detailed updates on their ongoing investigation into the 2G cases. While the CBI is expected to make a presentation before the CVC on Tuesday, the ED and the I-T department will give their updates on February 22 and 24 respectively.
“The officials have been called to discuss the probe into 2G matter. They will be giving a detailed presentation before the Commission,” sources said. However, the CBI officials seem to differ on what the role of the CVC would be in the ongoing probe. A senior CBI official told ‘Express’ that investigating agency would be just submitting a report to the CVC, which in turn will submit it to the court.
“The CBI probe in a corruption case is always done under the Vigilance Commission’s super-intendance and that’s exactly what’s happening now. The CVC will not interfere in the investigation process,” he said. However, it has been suggested from the CVC that the Commission may discuss ways to take the investigation forward.
Till date, the CBI has arrested former telecom minister A Raja and 13 others in connection with the case. Raja’s former private secretary R K Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar are facing trial in the case. The Supreme Court had on February 2 cancelled 122 2G licences given to telecom companies, holding that they were issued in a “totally arbitrary and unconstitutional manner”. The apex court had also asked the government to initiate a process to allot fresh licences based on auction of spectrum.
SC Order will Impact Other Sectors: Sibal
The Supreme Court decision to strike down the 122 telecom licenses issued on a first-come-first serve basis had ramifications for other sectors like mining where the same principle was employed, the Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has said. “I have been saying this repeatedly that the impact of the judgement is far-reaching. It has implications not only on the (telecom) sector but on other sectors as well,” he said. Sibal said the government was studying the implications of the judgement and would decide on its future course of action.