New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) A Delhi court hearing the 2G spectrum allocation case Monday reserved till Sep 15 its order on framing of charges against former communications minister A. Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and 15 other accused.


Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge O.P. Saini announced the decision after special CBI prosecutor U.U. Lalit concluded his final argument, rebutting the plea of innocence by all the 17 accused.

The judge said: "The order on framing of charge is reserved. The matter is now fixed on Sep 15 for orders (on framing of charges)."

Lalit wrapped up his argument while pleading to the court to frame charges of corruption and other penal offences against all 17 accused and put them to trial.

He told the court that Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless got the licences despite their ineligibility.

He said both the companies off-loaded their shares soon after getting the licences and garnered around Rs.7,300 crore in the process.

"We are conscious that so far as Unitech is concerned, we have found nothing to show any money trail against them. There is no quid pro quo as far as money exchanging hands is concerned in relation to Unitech," Lalit argued.

Seeking discharge in the case, some of the accused told the court that they were "innocent" and the charges levelled against them by the CBI were "silly".

Raja, at present lodged in Tihar Jail here along with the other accused, told the special court that apart from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he would seek the presence of the then finance minister P. Chidambaram and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal in the witness box.

The former minister personally addressed the judge earlier and said: “I want to challenge the CBI, can they even show a single page of evidence that I took decision individually without consulting the prime minister and any of his officials?"

“I want to go through the litmus test, just to prove my honesty,” said Raja.

He said he would call the prime minister and the other two witnesses to prove that the government did not incur any loss in the 2G spectrum allocation.

“The prime minister and the then finance minister P. Chidambaram were aware of the 2G licence allocations and had decided with the now-jailed former communications minister Raja not to auction these,” Kanimozhi told the court earlier.

"The (three) are good enough as witnesses to prove that there was no loss (to the exchequer),” she said.

Lalit, who started advancing arguments July 21, said earlier that it was Raja who approved the grant of dual technology 2G spectrum licences to telecom firms a day before inviting applications for it.

The probe agency claimed there was sufficient prima facie evidence to frame charges against the 14 accused and three telecom companies as co-conspirators under penal provisions and the Prevention of Corruption Act, dealing with criminal conspiracy and giving and accepting bribe.

The first set of charges filed in the case April 2 had named Raja, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, Raja's former personal secretary R.K. Chandolia, Swan Telecom's Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless' Sanjay Chandra and three others.

Three telecom companies who were also made accused in the first set of charge sheet.

The supplementary charge sheet filed April 25 named Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV chief Sharad Kumar, Cineyug Film`s Karim Morani, directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt. Ltd. Asif Balwa and Rajeev B. Agarwal.