Several people made allegations about the 2G spectrum allocation scam, but none appeared before the court to provide evidence or prove their claims, Special CBI Judge OP Saini, who pronounced the judgement in the case on Thursday, said.
All 19 accused, including former Telecom Minister A Raja (pictured above) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi were acquitted in the case.
Scores of people had appeared before the court and had submitted that “true facts were not placed before the bench”, Saini said. Some had also demanded that the court summon those the CBI had left out.
“However, none of these applications were found to be supported by any legally admissible material,” Saini said in his order. “All the applications were based either on the material already on court record or wholly irrelevant material. Accordingly, all these applications resulted in dismissal.”
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy was among the first people to write to Manmohan Singh, who was prime minister at the time, about the scam. He later filed a plea asking for former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to be prosecuted in the case.
Prominent “public-spirited persons” had gone on record to allege wrongdoings in the case, the judge said. But no one volunteered to enter the witness box. This only showed that nobody had any “firsthand material”, he said.
Saini gave the example of one petition. “The last of such applications was filed on August 28, 2017, by one Dr Amaidhy, a senior citizen from Chennai,” Saini said. “He alleged the investigation of the instant case was not conducted in a fair manner.” The judge said the petitioner also alleged that the murder of Sadhick Batcha, who was willing to become an approver, was not investigated properly. “However, this application was found to be full of unfounded allegations and dismissed.”
“I may also add that for the last seven years, I religiously sat in the open court from 10 am to 5 pm, awaiting for someone with some legally admissible evidence in his possession, but all in vain,” Saini said.
Everybody was going by “public perception created by rumour, gossip and speculation”, he ruled. “Public perception has no place in judicial proceedings,” he said.
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