The court, which held there was no scam in the 2G spectrum allocation in 2007-08 when Raja was the telecom minister in the erstwhile UPA regime headed by Manmohan Singh, also set free all accused in two offshoot cases lodged by the ED and the CBI.
It said some people created a scam by "artfully arranging a few selected facts and exaggerating things beyond recognition to astronomical levels".
Bollywood film producer Karim Morani, Kalaignar TV's director Sharad Kumar, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd were also acquitted.
The companies which were not found guilty are Shahid Balwa's Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Chandra's Unitech (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd and Reliance Telecom Ltd of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.
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Raja remained in jail for over 15 months while Kanimozhi was in prison for six months before they were granted bail. Other accused persons were also in jail for varying term.
The court also acquitted Essar Group promoters Ravi Kant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and six others in a separate CBI case arising out of the 2G scam probe.
Besides Ruias, Loop Telecom Promoters I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan and Vikash Saraf, one of the Essar Group Directors, Loop Telecom Ltd, Loop Mobile (India) Ltd and Essar Teleholdings Ltd were also acquitted.
It observed that the CBI had started its case with "great enthusiasm and ardour" but at the final stage of the trial, SPP Grover and the regular CBI prosecutor moved in "two different directions without any coordination".
Further, the judge was not convinced with the prosecution theory that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was misled by Raja or that the facts were misrepresented to him, saying such arguments were taken "just to prejudice the mind of the court by invoking the high name and authority of the prime minister of the country.
the court said the genesis of the instant case lies not so much in the actions of Raja but in the action or inaction of others and "there is no material on record to show that the telecom minister was 'mother lode of conspiracy' in the case".
"There is also no evidence of his noholdsbarred immersion in any wrongdoing, conspiracy or corruption," it said about the alleged scam in which high profile witnesses like the then Attorney General G E Vahanvati, Anil Ambani, his wife Tina Ambani, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, then TRAI Chairman Nripendra Mishra, then DoT secretary D S Mathur, former RBI governor D Subba Rao and former Law Secretary T K Vishwanathan deposed.
However, it said Raja's statements matched with the official record and "appeared to be cogent, truthful and as such acceptable".
"The end result of the above discussion is that, I have absolutely no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well choreographed charge sheet," the judge said in three separate verdicts running into 2,183 pages.
While trashing the CBI case, the court said, "However, on account of the various actions and inactions of the officials, as noted above, nobody believed the version of DoT and a huge scam was seen by everyone where there was none. These factors compelled people to conjecture about a big scam."
In the ED's case, DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal was also named as an accused in the case in which it had alleged that Rs 200 crore was paid by Swan Telecom (P) Ltd (STPL) promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.
It said no evidence was produced indicating any criminality in the acts allegedly committed by the accused persons relating to transfer of Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV as illegal gratification.
In the CBI's case against Essar Group promoters, the court said there was no evidence to suggest that they controlled Loop Telecom Ltd, an alleged beneficiary of the spectrum allocation.
The court said there was no material on record to indicate bogus transaction was carried out for securing 2G licences.
The verdict was summed up in a paragraph saying, "there is no evidence on the record produced before the court indicating any criminality in the acts allegedly committed by the accused persons relating to fixation of cutoff date, manipulation of firstcome firstserved policy, allocation of spectrum to dual technology applicants, ignoring ineligibility of STPL and Unitech group companies, nonrevision of entry fee and transfer of Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV (P) Limited as illegal gratification.
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