NEW DELHI: In a major embarrassment to the CBI, a special court on THursday discharged a former top bureaucrat and three telecom firms in the 2002 additional spectrum scam, saying the agency had filed a “false and fabricated” chargesheet against the accused.
Shyamal Ghosh, a former Telecom Secretary, and three telecom firms – Hutchison Max (P) Ltd, Sterling Cellular Ltd and Bharti Cellular Ltd – were chargesheeted in a case relating to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allocating additional spectrum that had allegedly led to a loss of Rs. 846.44 crore to the exchequer.
Special CBI Judge OP Saini observed that the CBI tried to mislead the court and the chargesheet filed by it was full of “distorted facts”.
The court asked the CBI Director to conduct an inquiry against the “erring officials” for filing such a chargesheet in the case.
“I am reading out the last paragraph of the order. It’s a false and fabricated chargesheet and there is no incriminating evidence against any of the accused so they are discharged. The chargesheet is full of distorted facts and an attempt has been made to mislead the court,” the judge said.
The “CBI Director is directed to make an inquiry against erring officials,” the court said.
The court had, on August 31, reserved its order after hearing arguments on framing of charges against the accused.
Shyamal Ghosh, a 1965-batch retired IAS officer, was the Telecom Secretary between February 7, 2000 and May 31, 2002.
The CBI had earlier argued that Mr Ghosh had given additional spectrum to the telecom companies at “throwaway prices” causing a huge loss to the exchequer. He had countered the agency’s arguments, saying private firms were not the only beneficiaries of surplus radio waves, but the state-run MTNL and BSNL had also benefitted. He also contended that it could not be said that allocation was done primarily to benefit private companies and asserted that he had not abused his official position in any manner.
Similarly, the accused firms had also countered the loss-to-exchequer theory presented by the CBI, saying they were allotted “spare radio waves” which would have incurred gains to the government.
In its chargesheet, the CBI had alleged that Mr Ghosh had “deliberately” and with “malafide intention” not obtained comments of then Member (Finance) of the Department of Telecommunications on the issue despite the matter involving huge “financial implications”.
All the accused were chargesheeted for the alleged offence of criminal conspiracy (section 120-B) of the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.