Appeal against Raja acquittal in 2G case ripe for hearing: CBI

NEW DELHI: The CBI has submitted before Delhi high court that its appeal against the acquittal of former telecom minister A Raja and 16 others in the 2G spectrum allocation case is "ripe for hearing".
Special prosecutor and senior advocate Sanjay Jain, in a recent hearing, urged Justice Vikas Mahajan to either fix multiple dates to hear the matter, which has a voluminous record, or post it to another date to decide a hearing schedule. "I request the court to give a bouquet of multiple dates," Jain contended, prompting HC to then post the matter to March 18 for further consideration.
A special CBI court had on Dec 21, 2017, acquitted former UPA-era telecom minister Raja, now an MP from Nilgiris, DMK MP Kanimozhi, and others in CBI and Enforcement Directorate cases stemming from the alleged scam.
The CBI claimed a loss of 30,984 crore to the exchequer in the allocation of licences for 2G spectrum in 2008 on a first-come-first-served basis after advancing the cut-off date, which was subsequently scrapped by the top court on Feb 2, 2012.

On March 20, 2018, CBI moved HC challenging the acquittal verdict. HC, in March last year, admitted the CBI appeal, saying there were some contradictions in the trial court judgment that required "deeper examination".
In the CBI case, Raja, Kanimozhi, and 15 others were tried under provisions of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act for offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, using as genuine fake documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by a public servant, and taking bribes.