No sanction required to prosecute A Raja and Kanimozhi: Court

A Delhi court today said there was no need for sanction from the speaker of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha's chairman for prosecution of former Telecom Minister and sitting Lok Sabha member A Raja and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

The court said sanction was not required to prosecute them as Raja had abused the official position as minister and not as a Lok Sabha MP and so was the case for Kanimozhi who did not abuse the office as a Rajya Sabha MP.

"I find myself in agreement with special public prosecutor (UU Lalit) that there are no allegations in the charge sheet that either of the two accused (Raja and Kanimozhi) misused or abused the office of member of parliament. The allegations against Raja are that he misused/abused the office of Minister of Communication and Information Technology, government of India, in granting UAS (unified access services) licences and allocation of spectrum.

"Similarly, there are no allegations against Kanimozhi that she misused the office of Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha," Special CBI Judge OP Saini said.