2G: Recording of evidence ends, court to hear final arguments

A Delhi court today concluded recording of defence evidence in 2G spectrum allocation case involving former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and 15 others, three years after commencement of trial.
The court fixed November 10 for hearing final arguments in the case in which 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.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini, who is exclusively dealing with 2G scam cases, concluded recording of defence evidence in the case in which the agency had examined 153 witnesses while the accused called 29 witnesses in their defence.

The judge fixed the case for final arguments on November 10 as the case involving promoters of Essar Group, Loop Telecom and others, Enforcement Directorate's money laundering case and Aircel-Maxis deal case are listed for hearing during this period.
"Accordingly, put up the matter for final arguments on November 10, 2014, as before that cases titled as CBI Vs Ravi Kant Ruia and others, Directorate of Enforcement Vs A Raja and others and CBI Vs Dayanidhi Maran and others are listed for defence evidence, arguments on charge and consideration of cognizance respectively," the judge said.
The court also said that in the case involving Raja and 16 others, five accused had not wished to lead evidence in their defence.

"I may add that out of the 17 accused, five accused, that is, Vinod Goenka, Swan Telecom (P) Limited (now Etisalat DB Telecom (P) Limited), Gautam Doshi, Reliance Telecom Ltd and Kanimozhi Karunanithi had said in their statement under section 313 CrPC itself that they do not wish to lead defence evidence," the judge said.
The court also observed that co-accused Asif Balwa and Karim Morani had earlier desired to lead defence evidence but they did not examine any witness and their statements were recorded accordingly.
"Remaining 10 accused have examined witnesses in their defence and their statements closing defence evidence have been recorded separately. In this way, defence evidence for all the 17 accused is complete," the court said.