Former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation AP Singh, who had supervised the probe into the 2G spectrum case investigation, on Friday said that he does not understand the judgement, The Hindu reported.
His statement comes just a day after a special Delhi court had acquitted Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders A Raja and Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Sidharth Behura, and Raja’s private secretary RK Chandolia, among others.
“I don’t understand the judgment, I am quite confused,” Singh said, adding that the prosecution’s witnesses were “completely demolished”, while those of the defence were considered totally true.
Singh said that the agency’s case against Raja was simple. “The allegation is that he tweaked the system to give Swan and Unitech licences on priority plus spectrum, which they would not have got in the normal course,” Singh said. “It is alleged that in doing this, Raja was helped by his private secretary RK Chandolia.”
Singh, who was in charge of the agency from 2010 to 2012, told The Indian Express: “There was a lot of pressure on us from the Supreme Court but no oversight committee was appointed as was being then suggested. We fought all that.”
He added that some facts like the “changes made in the cut-off date for 2G allocations and the fact that the first-come-first-serve rule was disregarded” cannot be disputed. “I think the attack of the trial court has been on the prosecution’s handling of the case rather than the allegations per se,” he added.
However, former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, under whom the case was under trial, claimed he had detected “glaring omissions” in the investigation. Sinha added that he felt “vindicated” by the verdict since he had faced criticism for how he had handled the case.
“I tried to incorporate these things in the status report to the Supreme Court,” Sinha said. “But, the then special public prosecutor objected and my findings were never incorporated in the status report.”
The Tamil Nadu unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), meanwhile, demanded that the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate continue to investigate the 2G case and prove the charges in court, according to The New Indian Express. “CBI and ED have got the responsibility to bring the culprits, who caused a huge loss to the nation, before the court and prove the charges,” said CPI(M)’s state secretary G Ramakrishnan.
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