The special 2G court on Monday fixed January 28 for hearing the additional spectrum allocation scam case of 2002 after it was informed that the Supreme Court has quashed the order summoning Bharti Cellular Ltd CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia as accused.
The special 2G court on Monday fixed January 28 for hearing the additional spectrum allocation scam case of 2002 after it was informed that the Supreme Court has quashed the order summoning Bharti Cellular Ltd CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia as accused.
Special CBI Judge OP Saini fixed for hearing the matter which was virtually stalled since April 26, 2013 interim order of the Supreme Court which had said that proceedings against Mittal and Ruia, who had challenged trial court's summoning order, will remain "postponed" until further orders. After the court was apprised about the apex court's order, the judge said he would go through the verdict and asked the defence counsel to complete the scrutiny of documents filed along with the charge sheet.
The apex court on last Friday had cleared the decks in the case by setting aside the lower court's order summoning Mittal and Ruia, observing that principle of 'alter ego' has wrongly been applied by the trial judge in seeking presence of both the top corporate honchos as accused. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu had also said that the trial court had issued summons on an "erroneous presumption in law", but it can summon Mittal and Ruia if incriminating materials are found against them.
Besides Mittal and Ruia, the special court had also summoned Canada-based NRI Asim Ghosh, who was then a managing director of accused firm Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd, as accused. Mittal, Ruia and Asim Ghosh were not named as accused in the CBI charge sheet.
After the apex court's verdict in the case, Essar Group, in a statement, had said that setting aside of the trial court order summoning its Vice Chairman Ravi Ruia will "assuage concerns of corporate leaders regarding misuse of judicial processes".
CBI had filed a charge sheet on December 21, 2012 against former Telecom Secretary 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 special court had also summoned Shyamal Ghosh and the three firms as accused in the case after taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the agency.
CBI had chargesheeted them as accused in the case relating to the Department of Telecommunications allocating additional spectrum which had allegedly resulted in a loss of Rs 846 crore to the exchequer.
In the 57-page charge sheet, CBI has booked Shyamal Ghosh and the three firms for the offences of criminal conspiracy (120-B) of the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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