2G SPECTRUM CASE AND ITS JUDGEMENT

The much awaited judgement was finally delivered on 21st December 2017 on the by far the biggest scam the country had seen during the UPA-1 and UPA-2.  The allocation of spectrum for 2G connectivity in 2006-07 on the principle of 'first come first served' instead of auctioning it and alleged benefits to many political and non political persons in the bargain was the basis of the case. The issue came to light with the then Comptroller and Auditor General of the country (CAG) assessing a presumptive loss of Rs. 1.76 lakhs crores (INR 1760 billion = approximately USD 28.39 billion) to the ex-chequer in his report to the parliament on the Telecom Ministry.  The then government was forced to institute a CBI inquiry into that and the SC took matters in its hand and asked the CBI to file charge sheet. The CBI arrested the then Telecom minister A Raja as a conspirator and later he got bail. The CBI also arrested Ms. Kanimozhi, an upper house MP in the Indian Parliament on the charge of her having received illegal gratification to the tune of INR 200 crores (INR 2 billion in a related case). She happens to be the daughter of the leading DMK patriarch M Karunanithi added more spice to the grist mills and twist to the case.  The case was filed in 2009 at the behest of SC and was being monitored by the Supreme Court.The SC appointed the Special Public Prosecutor for this case. 

The case was going on from then onwards. In 2012, the special CBI court relieved former finance minister P Chidambaram from the Aircel Maxis case. In February, 2017 the same court discharged the Maran brothers, one of whom was a minister in the UPA and the other the founder of the SUN TV network, for lack of evidence linking them to the Aircel Maxis case. All the cases relating to the spectrum allocation and the alleged misdemeanor were being heard by the special CBI court which was presided by the same judge. Now the special CBI court has acquitted the then Telecom minister A Raja and Ms. Kanimozhi and other accused from the case for the following reasons:

1. The Prosecutor though vigorous in the initial stages of the case became lackadaisical in the later stages of the case.

2. The judge also said that he was waiting for some evidence to link all the people to the alleged loss to the ex-chequer by the CBI in its plaint.

3. The documentary evidences tracing the money trail were absent

In the absence of the documentary evidence linking the accused and tracing the money trail to the accused from one another are the main reasons for the acquittal. This does not prove conclusively that the acquitted accused did not commit the fraud on the nation.  There had been a case with the charge sheet running to few tens of thousands of pages and the CBI had spent many man-hours in preparing the case, as informed by the then CBI director. There is no point in preparing a charge sheet running to millions of pages if the prosecution is not able to substantiate the charges in the court of law with credible evidence. Either the CBI did not collect proper and enough evidence or there was an attempt to botch the case from the very beginning.  There was a news item in one of the dailies which said that the main accused the then Telecom minister who is a qualified lawyer himself, was arguing his case himself and shattering the charges of the CBI with evidence after evidence showing that there was no malafide in any of the decisions taken by him.

The acquittal had got the goat of many in the social media who are on a frenzy to blame it on the current administration. Some had gone to the extent of alleging a nexus between the ruling party and the main opposition party in Tamilnadu.  Even the courtesy call of the Prime Minister on the ailing patriarch of the DMK had come up for these netizens' ire.  The social media is abuzz with various theories for the acquittal. There was a post suggesting that the judge was the same who decided on the discharge of the then finance minister from the case and he was the same who acquitted the Maran brothers from the case and now he is the one who had acquitted the then Telecom minister and the MP and therefore, attributing chances of corruption on the judge and the judiciary.  There is an immediate comparison with another high profile case in which the trial court convicted the accused and the high court acquitted them with the Supreme Court confirming the findings of the trail court. That case was dragging on for a period of almost 20 years and in between the accused was elected Chief Minister of TN four times and she held the post for a little over 12 years in all.

It is the SC that took up the case suo motu and decided to cancel the allotment of spectrum to 122 bidders thereby inflicting, albeit unwittingly,  the biggest punishment to the banking sector where more than INR 30000 crores were added to their huge NPA kitty. There are comments in the social media whether the SC was wrong in cancelling the spectrum allotment or the trial court in acquitting the accused from the spectrum case. 

It is high time, the SC restores the credibility of the judiciary by suo motu taking over the appeal if any on this case to the high court and pronounce judgement on the case on its merits.  The SC was monitoring the case and the SPP was seen to have botched up the case,  Therefore, it is incumbent upon the SC to restore the pride of place that judiciary commands among the public.  The judiciary is seen to be taking up cases of many low value matters like Jallikattu ban, Diwali Cracker ban etc on urgent basis which are not having any ramification on the national level. Whereas this particular case needs to be addressed by the SC on an urgent basis to restore confidence of the public in the judiciary.   The SC instead of waiting for the government to appeal to HC against the ruling of the trial court, can get the verdict details from the SPP and take him to task for the poor show as pointed out in the  judgement. It can also get the case transferred to itself from the high court as and when the appeal is filed in the HC by the government. 

The retired SC judge Justice Singhvi, who cancelled the licences, said in an interview that he was convinced that there was enough evidence and material to cancel the licences and the integrity of the then CAG is impeccable; he further stated that the figure quoted by the CAG might be correct as the subsequent events proved. The subsequent auction proceeds of about half the number of licences fetching about INR 65000 crores is a pointer to the loss projected by the then CAG. The trial court had rapped the CBI in not conducting the case properly with evidences to support the charges but had, in any place of the judgement, alluded that there was no corruption and the accused are knights in shining Armour of integrity. Therefore, the agitation by the congress in front of the residence of the then CAG in Delhi is abominable.  

However, the appeal and further hearing of the cases until the SC decides on the whole issue will be a few years from now and till then anything may happen in politics with the accused politicians even becoming ministers either in state or center or even chief minister in the state.