‘Shocked over 2G case acquitals; even SC convinced by CBI probe’

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Former CBI Director A.P. Singh on Thursday expressed "shock" over a special court verdict acquitting all accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case and said that "even the Supreme Court was convinced with the agency's investigations".

"I don't know what happened during the case trial but there were clear irregularities in the allotment of 2G spectrum, which we (CBI) pointed out with detailed evidence," Singh told IANS.

Singh headed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) when then Telecom Minister A. Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and other accused were arrested in the case.

Recollecting the challenges and pressures he faced while probing the case -- the 2G spectrum allocation to private companies in 2008 -- Singh said the Supreme Court monitored the case and continuously pressurised the CBI to expedite investigations.

But the verdict of the Special CBI court in Delhi pronounced on Thursday, after a six-year trial, to acquit the accused was "shocking, surprising and disappointing", Singh said.

Special CBI judge O.P. Saini on Thursday acquitted all the accused in the 2G case, including Raja and Kanimozhi.

Saini said the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove charges against 33 persons named in the case, which contributed to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance's electoral loss in 2014 general election.

The CBI filed an FIR on October 21, 2009 against unidentified officials for non-transparent allocation of the telecom spectrum. A year after, the Supreme Court pulled up the CBI for its tardy investigation following a petition filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

Former CBI chief A.P. Singh recalled: "The SC gave us the deadline. There was a demand for an oversight committee to oversee CBI probe and that the agency should report to this committee. We had to convince the court that we will carry out a fair and impartial investigation and there was no need for overseeing. The Supreme Court agreed. Later, it was convinced that we were doing our job well and for two year the apex court did not make any adverse comment on our investigations."

Singh said the CBI had been submitting monthly investigation reports to the Supreme Court.

As far as the evidence is concerned, Singh said, "all these matters went up to the Attorney General who saw and examine them".

"Additionally, K.K. Venugopal (senior Supreme Court advocate) was associated with this investigation and all our status reports were given to the Supreme Court through him," Singh said.

According to the former CBI chief, the agency had "enough evidence to show that there were certain irregularities" in the allocation of the licence.

"The main effort of the then telecom Minister (A. Raja) was to give away the licences to Unitech and Swan Telecom.... the whole effort was to benefit these two companies."

Singh said he agreed that 2G spectrum allocation is a very technical subject but clarified that the irregularities were very simple and that were made to favour certain parties. Whoever puts the draft in first gets the licence, he said.

"As many as Rs 200 crore had gone from companies associated with Swan Telecom to Kalaignar TV, in which 60 per cent shares were controlled by Kanimozhi's mother Dayalu Amma and 20 per cent by Kanimozhi. This money then returned suddenly when the case probe began. So, there was a strong suspicion and that this money had been paid as bribe to Kalaignar TV. This was our case."