With the 2G allocation scam charges ruled out by a court, telecom minister Manoj Sinha said that the investigating agencies will pursue their charges, into what the Supreme Court has already ruled as arbitrary, faulty and corrupt.
"The government does not want to comment anything on the court decision now. Investigating agencies will take further decision. The government will ponder on it after that," Sinha told reporters here.
"Supreme Court had already given its verdict. The 2G spectrum auction was arbitrary, faulty and corrupt. We will wait for instructions from the court," said Sinha, when asked about the fate of the cancelled 122 2G licences allowed in 2012 auction.
Sinha said that there is 'no question' of the current spectrum auction system being subject to any change after today's judgement. "We have earned 10 per cent more revenue from spectrum auction.. This judgement is Congress's dirty tricks," he said.
Meanwhile, Essar Group, whose two promoters and five other key officials were named in the scam for cornering spectrum in the guise of Loop Telecom, has thanked the court for releiving them of the charges.
"We are thankful to the Hon’ble Court for the judgement since it vindicates our stated position, and the Hon’ble Court has accepted it," Essar said, in a one line comment after today's judgement.
Investigating agencies in the case held that the court had not been able to take heed of the documentary evidences provided by them.
"We will most definitely be going for appeal as we have presented some incriminating documents showing FCRA violations," said an Enforcement Directorate official, who is overseeing the agency's 2G spectrum case.
Another accused Sanjay Chandra, MD, Unitech, blamed that he and his company had to pay the price for the fraudulent charges relating to 2G spectrum allocation to his company, Uninor, a partnership with Danish telecom giant Telenor.
"There was no wrongdoing on my part or on the part of my companies," Chandra said in a statement on Thursday evening. "However, the damage suffered by me and the companies continues to affect the health and financial status of my company and they continue to pay the price for this case having been foisted on us fraudulently and without any basis," he added.
Share prices of Shahid Balwa-owned DB Realty, Uninor and SunTV Network rallied 5-20 per cent after the verdict came in the morning.
CBI, too, said it would seek appeal of Justice O.P. Saini's order in higher court. CBI spokesperson, Abhishek Dayal said, "I can tell you we will be availing all legal opinion on this for filing an appeal on today's judgement."
In a statement issued today, the premier investigation agency, which had filed chargesheet in two different cases in the scam, said, "The judgment relating to 2G scam case today has been prima facie examined and it appears that the evidence adduced to substantiate the charges by the prosecution has not been appreciated in its proper perspective by the Learned Court."
All eyes are now on the investigating agencies and on Chennai High Court for further developments in the 2G spectrum allocation cases.
