 "Court dismisses CBI charges in additional spectrum case")
In his observations on Thursday, Judge O P Saini also said he was acquitting then Union Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh, a 1965-batch IAS officer, who has since retired. He was secretary between February 7, 2000 and May 31, 2002.
CBI, said the judge, had filed a "false and fabricated" charge sheet against the telcos and Ghosh. The court directed CBI Director Anil Sinha to conduct an inquiry against the "erring officials" for filing such a charge sheet.
"I am reading out the last paragraph of the order. It's a false and fabricated charge sheet and there is no incriminating evidence against any of the accused, so they are discharged. The charge sheet is full of distorted facts and an attempt has been made to mislead the court," the judge said.
The arguments by prosecution and defence counsels, on whether there existed enough evidence to warrant a trial on the charges, had concluded on August 31. The judge had then said he was reserving the order, pronounced on Thursday.
CBI had, in December 2012, filed a charge sheet against Ghosh and three telecom companies - Hutchison Max, Sterling Cellular and Bharti Cellular.
The charge was irregularities in allocation of excess spectrum that had caused a loss of Rs 846 crore to the exchequer and corresponding gain to the companies. All the accused were charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act and with criminal conspiracy.
CBI contended Bharti and Vodafone were beneficiaries of the department of telecom's (DoT) move on January 31, 2002 to allocate additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz and subsequently from 8 MHz to 10 MHz. Ghosh, with then Telecom Minister Pramod Mahajan, granted the additional spectrum with a usage charge of one per cent of the companies' adjusted gross revenue instead of two per cent, alleged CBI.
Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom company by market share, stated after the verdict: "As responsible corporate citizens, (we) always maintained the highest standards of corporate governance and transparency. The verdict vindicates our position." A Vodafone India spokesperson spoke similarly.
Mahajan, the then minister in the earlier Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, met a violent death in 2006.
In July 2002, the additional spectrum was allotted to Bharti Airtel for the Delhi circle and Vodafone for the Delhi and Mumbai circles. CBI said it had found irregular allocation of additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz to 10 MHz to GSM operators, including Bharti and Vodafone, at minimal incremental revenue share. The agency has alleged favouritism and arbitrariness by some officers in DoT, bypassing the opinions of the member (finance), the wireless adviser and even the highest decision-making body in the department, the Telecom Commission. It had registered a case in November 2011.
Ghosh had countered CBI's arguments, saying private companies were not the only beneficiaries of surplus radiowaves; state-run MTNL and BSNL had also benefited. He had contended that it could not be said that allocation was done primarily to benefit private companies and asserted he had not abused his official position in any manner.
Similarly, the companies accused had also countered CBI's loss to the exchequer argument, saying they were allotted "spare radiowaves", with gain to the government.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
2012
- December: Charge sheet filed by CBI against Bharti Cellular (now Bharti Airtel), Vodafone India (earlier known as Hutchison Max & Sterling Cellular) and ex-telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh over additional spectrum allotment made in 2002 when Pramod Mahajan was the telecom minister
- August: Special court reserved the order after listening to arguments of all parties
- October: Special court quashes charge sheet filed by CBI
2013
- May: Supreme Court terms CBI a 'caged parrot' for sharing status report in coal case with former law minister Ashwani Kumar (pictured)
- September: Special court questions CBI's hurry to file closure report against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla (pictured) and others in a coal scam case
- October: Special court rejects CBI's closure report in cases related to Kamal Sponge Steel and Power and Vikash Metal and Power saying agency probed in 'clandestine manner'; summons former coal secretary H C Gupta, among others, in the former case
- November: SC asks then CBI director Ranjit Sinha (pictured) to withdraw from 2G scam investigation for his interference in various cases
^ Special court rejects CBI's closure report in two more coal cases; asks agency to probe Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda's role
- December: Special court rejects a revised closure report in Hindalco case; asks CBI to record statement of former prime minister Manmohan Singh