2G: Court to hear framing of charges on Jul 21

A Delhi court on Tuesday decided to commence from Thursday arguments on framing of charges in the high-profile 2G case in which former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and several corporate honchos have been charge sheeted by the CBI.

"Arguments on charges shall commence with effect from July 21," Special CBI Judge O P Saini said after the agency and the defence counsel submitted that the supply of documents, annexed with the two charge sheets in the case, has been completed.

The CBI had, in its first charge sheet, accused Raja, and eight other persons as well as three companies of causing a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer.

The companies named in the charge sheet filed in the Delhi court include Reliance Communications, Unitech Wireless and Swan Telecom. Charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and corruption have been levelled against Raja, his private secretary R K Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa.

Others named in the charge sheet include Vinod Goenka, a director of Mumbai-based DB Realty which was also the promoter of Etisalat DB, Sanjay Chandra, managing director of Gurgaon-based real estate company Unitech and Unitech Wireless(Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd, and Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara, the group managing director and senior vice presidents of Mumbai-based Reliance Telecom Company respectively.