The ongoing trial in the 2Gspectrum allocation case, involving high-profile accused likeformer Telecom Minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi todaycompleted a year, yielding the recording of over 3,000 pagesof depositions in examination of over 100 witnesses.
The stage for the day-to-day trial, which had started onNovember 11 last year, was set after Special CBI Judge O PSaini had framed charges against 17 accused, including threetelecom firms, named in the first two charge sheets sayingthere was sufficient prima facie evidence against them.
For the last one year, apart from Raja and 16 others, thecourt has also been holding the trial of Essar Group and LoopTelecom promoters, who have been arrayed as accused in a caselinked to the 2G scam.
Till today, the court has recorded statements of 77 CBIwitnesses in the case in which Raja is the key accused, whilein the case against Essar and Loop promoters, it has concludedrecording statements of 28 prosecution witnesses.
As per the court sources, around 3,000 pages of evidencehave been recorded by the judge till now.
The proceedings in the case, conducted by the special CBIcourt set up exclusively to deal with the 2G spectrum case, isalso being monitored by the Supreme Court.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, former Telecom SecretarySiddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R KChandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and VinodGoenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, three top executives ofReliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) -- Gautam Doshi,Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair -- are facing trial in the case.
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd AsifBalwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumarand Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in thecase.
Besides these 14 accused persons, three telecom firms -- Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL), Reliance Telecom Ltd and UnitechWireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd -- are also facing trial in thecase. They have been arrayed as accused in the first two CBIcharge sheets filed on April 2 and 25 last year respectively.
The court had on October 22, 2011 framed charges against17 accused under various provisions of the IPC and thePrevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminalconspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusingofficial position, criminal misconduct by public servant andtaking bribe.
The offences entail punishment ranging from six months injail to life imprisonment.
Out of a total of 154 prosecution witnesses, named in thefirst two chargesheets, the court has recorded the statementsof 77 of them.
Some high profile prosecution witnesses, who are yet tobe examined, includes Attorney General G E Vahanvati,corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and current RBI Governor DSubbarao.
After the commencement of trial in the case, the CBI onDecember 12 last year had filed its charge sheet against EssarGroup promoters Ravi and Anshuman Ruia, and Loop Telecompromoters I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan for their alleged rolein the criminal case linked to the 2G scam.
Essar Group director (Strategy and Planning) Vikash Sarafand three telecom firms -- Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, Loop MobileIndia Ltd and Essar Tele Holdings Ltd -- were also arrayed asaccused in the charge sheet for allegedly cheating theDepartment of Telecom (DoT) by using Loop Telecom as a "front"to secure 2G licences in 2008.
They were slapped with the charges of committing offencesonly under the IPC as the CBI did not find enough evidence toprosecute them under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The special court on May 25 this year had framed chargesof conspiracy to cheat the government against eight accused,including three telecom firms, named in the charge sheet filedon December 12, 2011.
While the court said all the accused were charged withthe offence under section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) readwith section 420 (cheating) of IPC, the substantial charge ofcheating was made out against Saraf only.
After framing charges, the court on July 26 had commencedthe trial against them and till now it has recorded statementsof 28 prosecution witnesses out of the 100 named in the chargesheet in the case.