The Delhi High Court on Friday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had successfully put forth a case for “re-appreciation of the entire evidence” in the 2G spectrum allocation case in which former Telecom Minister A. Raja, and others were acquitted in 2017.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said, “on the basis of material on record, and after going through the sworn testimonies, material on record, impugned judgment and the submissions made at bar by both the parties... there is a prima facie case which requires deeper examination and re-appreciation/re-appraisal of entire evidence”.
The judge said during the hearing he had noticed “some contradictions in the [2018] judgment itself, which require deeper examination”.
“The court at this stage is required to have a prima facie helicopter view. There may be a possibility that such contradictions are explained by the defence during the hearing,” the judge added.
The verdict came five years after the CBI approached the High Court challenging the trial court verdict acquitting the accused in the 2G case.
The High Court had reserved its decision on March 14. The case was currently at the stage of ‘leave to appeal’ which is a formal permission granted by a court to a party to challenge a decision in a higher court.
2017 verdict
In December 2017, a Special CBI court here had acquitted Mr. Raja, Ms. Kanimozhi and others in the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases relating to the 2G case, noting that the prosecution had “miserably failed” to prove the charges.
The Special CBI court also acquitted 17 others, including the late DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, film producer Karim Morani, P. Amirtham and Sharad Kumar, director of Kalaignar TV, in the ED case.
On March 19, 2018, the ED approached the High Court challenging the special court’s order acquitting all the accused. A day later, the CBI too had challenged in the court the acquittal of the accused in the case.
