New Delhi: Former Telecom Minister A Raja and 16 co-accused, against whom the trial has already begun in the 2G case, on Tuesday told a Delhi court that they be given copies of the third chargesheet filed against Essar group promoters Anshuman and Ravi Ruia and six others in the matter.
Responding to the demand, Special CBI Judge OP Saini said the present accused may be supplied copies of the fresh charge sheet after he was convinced that it would "impact" their case.
"I am a judge. I recognise my duties. If it (charge sheet) impacts you (other 17 accused), then I will surely supply the charge sheet to you," the judge said, adding "Let me decide on it first."
The court's observation came when defence counsel Vijay Aggarwal said as the CBI had filed the second supplementary charge sheet in the same case, the present set of accused be also supplied the same.
"This is a second supplementary charge sheet in the case and if this is not an independent charge sheet then it should be supplied to us as well," he said.
Anshuman Ruia, Ravi Ruia, Loop Telecom promoters Kiran Khaitan, her husband I P Khaitan and Essar Group director (Strategy and Planning) Vikas Saraf have been made accused by the CBI in its third chargesheet arising out of the probe in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Besides these five, Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Tele Holding have been named as accused in the charge sheet filed on Monday in the special court.
The court has fixed December 17 for taking cognizance of the 105-page-long charge sheet for prosecution on offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the eight accused.
CBI, in its third charge sheet, has charged the accused with cheating the Department of Telecom (DoT) by using Loop Telecom as a "front" to secure 2G licenses in 2008.
The accused have been booked for the offences punishable only under the IPC as the agency did not find enough evidence to prosecute them under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The charge sheet names 100 prosecution witnesses.
Essar Group, in a statement, had denied any involvement in the 2G scam and said it has complied with all the conditions of telecom licences. It claimed that the CBI has confirmed that Essar was not involved in the 2G scam.
The CBI has alleged that Essar, which already had a stake as an existing telecom operator, created a front company Loop Telecom to secure additional 2G spectrum which was in contravention of the Telecom policy.
Besides the fresh set of eight accused, CBI earlier filed charge sheets against 17 accused including three companies, Reliance Telecom Ltd, Swan Telecom and Unitech Ltd.
In last two charge sheets, CBI named Raja, his private secretary RK Chandolia, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, DMK MP Kanimozhi and DMK-run Kalaignar TV's Managing Director Sharad Kumar.
The agency had also named six corporate honchos - Reliance ADAG Group Managing Director Gautam Doshi, its senior Vice President Hari Nair, Group President Surendra Pipara, Swan Telecom Promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka and Managing Director of Unitech Ltd Sanjay Chandra.
The others, named in the charge sheet were Bollywood producer Karim Morani, directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal. The trial began on November 11. Barring Raja and Behura, all are out on bail.
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