2G scam: Delhi court fixes December 19 for final arguments

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday fixed December 19 for hearing final arguments in the 2G spectrum allocation case involving former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and 15 others.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini, who was scheduled to hear the matter today, deferred the case after counsel for CBI and the accused sought more time. "Put up for December 19 for final arguments," the judge said.

During the brief hearing, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Anand Grover said that he required some more time to advance his arguments.

The SPP's submission came after Vijay Aggarwal, counsel for Swan Telecom promotor Shahid Balwa, one of the accused asked the court how it can commence final hearing when an application has been moved by CBI for examining more witnesses.

Earlier, on September 10, the court had concluded recording of defence evidence in the case. The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.

The special judge, who is exclusively dealing with 2G scam cases, had concluded recording of defence evidence in the case in which the CBI had examined 153 witnesses while the accused called 29 witnesses in their defence.

The recording of evidence in the case involving Raja and 16 others had started three years ago on November 11, 2011, after the court had framed charges against the 17 accused named in the first two charge sheets filed by the agency.

The court has recorded statements of 153 CBI witnesses, including Reliance ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani, his wife Tina Ambani and former corporate lobbyist Nira Radia, running into over 4,400 pages in the case.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, three top executives of

Reliance 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 Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in the case.

Besides these 14 accused persons, three telecom firms -- Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL), Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd -- are facing trial in the case.

The court had on October 22, 2011 framed charges against them under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating,forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe.

The offences entail punishment ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment.