"There was a design which was deliberately and consciously put in place by the concerned persons (accused). Therefore, offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with section 420 (cheating) of the IPC is clearly made out prima facie at least at this juncture of point.
"As a public prosecutor, I feel that in my opinion, these charges are made out against the accused," Special public prosecutor U U Lalit told a designated CBI judge O P Saini.
Lalit said this while arguing on the framing of charges against Essar group promoters Ravi Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and Loop Telecom promoters I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan and Essar Group Director (Strategy and Planning) Vikash Saraf.
Besides the five persons, three companies Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Tele Holding are also accused in the case arising out of the probe in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Essar and Loop will oppose the framing of charges against them on May 7.
Regarding the alleged violation of clause 8 of the UASL guidelines, Lalit said the accused gave "false and fraudulent representations" to Department of Telecom (DoT) and invited it to act in a particular manner.
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"It is based on these assertions and false and fraudulent representations that DoT was invited to act in a particular fashion. That is why DoT granted letter of intents (LoIs) on January 10, 2008, and then allotment of spectrum took place," he said.
As per clause 8 of the UASL guidelines, no company, either directly or through its associates, shall have 10 per cent or more equity holding in more than one licensee company in the same service area for the same service. (More)