Former UPA telecom minister A Raja, DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and 15 others were acquitted on Thursday, 21 December, of charges in the 2G spectrum "scam". Judge OP Saini read out a single-line verdict – “all acquitted of all charges”.
The judgement said that investigators "miserably failed" to prove that Raja, along with officials from companies that won the licenses for telecom services, had conspired to receive kickbacks from the sale of phone permits, causing a loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer.
While the UPA rejoiced in the verdicts, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley slammed the Congress of wearing the verdict as a ‘Badge of honour’ and seeing it as a ‘certification that it was an honest policy’. He reminds of facts and the Supreme Court’s verdict of 2012 where it ‘quashed’ all the allocations as ‘arbitrary and unfair’.
Congress Leader Sibal hailed the verdict, saying that the it has ‘vindicated’ the UPA government and his stand of ‘zero Loss theory’. Sibal even demanded an apology from the former CAG Vinod Rai and the BJP government.
When I succeeded A Raja and looked at the facts, I told the people of the country that there is nothing wrong that has happened. And today the (then-)prime minister’s position and the government and my positions have been vindicated. It’s most unfortunate that the country had to go through this’
Kapil Sibal, Leader, Congress
Court acquittal in 2G spectrum case validates my rightfulness; my actions were for benefit of masses, says former telecom minister A Raja. “The entire case is cooked-up, it has no basis,” he added.
The CBI received a backhanded compliment from the special court for filing a "well choreographed chargesheet" containing incorrect facts which miserably failed to prove charges against the accused in 2G spectrum case.
The CBI has said it will take legal remedies following the 2G ‘scam’ case verdict.
Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim
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