2G scam verdict: 700 old judgments paved way for acquittal

Special Judge OP Saini read over 700 old judgments which were given as case references by various lawyers before penning down the fate of all the 21 accused, including former Telecom Minister A Raja and DMK leader and MP Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

"I may note that I have carefully gone through the entire case law cited at the bar by the parties. I have also carefully gone through the written submissions filed by the parties. The case law would be referred to as and when required," Special Judge Saini said.

In the 1552 page judgment delivered by Saini, he mentioned all the case references by all the respective lawyers of the several accused. Altogether 608 case references of several cases were put forth by both the parties even though a few of them might be repeated. Besides 102 references were made as rebuttal.

Advocate Vijay Agarwal, on behalf of his client RK Chandolia, gave the maximum numbers of case references during the proceedings taking the number to 134. It was again Agarwal who gave 97 references on behalf of his client Shahid Balwa. This was followed by 63 references made by the same lawyer for two of his clients Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal.

A little behind Agarwal was Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover, who made 102 references during rebuttal. However, he gave just 35 references during the trial. The least number of references were given by advocate Deeksha Khurana for Swan Telecommunication who referred to just a single case.

While 30 references were made for A Raja by his counsel Manu Sharma, 15 were made on the behalf of Kanimozhi by her counsel Amarender Sharan.

Special Judge Saini repeated about the huge volume of records and documents involved in the case in the judgment.

Even on Thursday, as he entered the court room to pronounce the judgment followed by his court staff carrying the huge pile of papers, he said, "Giving the huge records of the case, this is a very brief judgment I have written."

The judge also mentioned in his the judgment that lawyers of both the accused and the CBI filed written submissions running into 25,000 pages.

"It may be noted that in view of voluminous record running into several lac pages and also technical nature of the case, oral arguments for the parties continued for about two years. Both the parties also filed written submissions in detail running into about twenty five thousand pages," the judge said.

He also appreciated the advocates for both parties for their hard work put during the trial of this voluminous, technical and complex case, the record of which runs into about three four lac pages.