After a series of blows from the judiciary and other constitutional bodies, the UPA got its first breather when the Special CBI court in the 2G case ruled that union home minister P Chidambaram during his earlier stint as finance minister was never associated with a decision that could be termed as part of a criminal conspiracy.
Dismissing a plea to make P Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G case, Special CBI Judge OP Saini in his 46-page judgement said, “A decision taken by a public servant does not become criminal for the simple reason that it has caused loss to the public exchequer or resulted in pecuniary advantage to others. Merely attending meetings and taking decisions therein is not a criminal act...there is no material on record to suggest that Mr Chidambaram was acting with corrupt or illegal motives or was in abuse of his official position.”
“The plea is without any merit and the same is dismissed,” the judge said in a five minute hearing.
The special court’s verdict came as a big relief for the UPA government, which received a major setback early this week when the Supreme Court had cancelled 122 mobile network licences issued in 2008. The apex court blamed former telecom minister A Raja for the arbitrary and unlawful allocation of those licences.
The order could be challenged in a higher court. “Anybody and everybody associated with a decision in any degree cannot be roped in as an accused. The role played by the decision maker, circumstances in which the decision was taken, and the intention of the decision maker are the relevant facts. Intention is to be inferred from the facts and circumstances of the case. One cannot be held guilty merely by association with a decision and a decision by itself does not indicate criminality,” the court said.
“There must be something more than mere association. Innocent and innocuous acts done in association with others do not make one a partner in crime, unless there is material to indicate otherwise, which is lacking in this case,” the court said.
Holding that Chidambaram was party to only two decisions, that is, keeping the spectrum prices at 2001 level, and dilution of equity by the two companies (Swan and Unitech) and that these decisions are not per se criminal, the court said, “in the absence of any other incriminating act on his part, it cannot be said that he was prima facie party to the criminal conspiracy. There is no evidence on record that he was acting in pursuit to the criminal conspiracy, while being party to the two decisions regarding non-revision of the spectrum pricing and dilution of equity by the two companies.”
“There is no evidence that he (Chidambaram) obtained any pecuniary advantage without any public interest. I may add that there is such incriminating material against other accused persons, who stand charged and are facing trial,” the court said, adding that non-revision of prices is not an illegal act by itself.
Giving Chidambaram a clean chit, the Judge said, “There is no evidence on record to suggest that there was an agreement between him (Chidambaram) and Mr A Raja to subvert telecom policy and obtain pecuniary advantage for himself or for any other person.
There is no evidence of any substantive act being committed by him. A bit of evidence here and a bit there does not constitute prima facie evidence for showing prima facie existence of a criminal conspiracy.
The 2G case relates to alleged irregularities in the allocation of scarce second generation spectrum to telecom companies during the tenure of former communications minister A Raja, which is said to have caused huge losses to the exchequer. Chidambaram was the finance minister at that time. Raja has been in jail for a year in the 2G case.
Comments