2G case: 17 accused charged, may face jail up to 7 yrs

A special CBI court today found prima facie evidence against all the 17 accused including former Telecom Minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi and corporate honchos to frame charges against them in the 2G Spectrum allocation scam case for varying roles.

The court found prima facie evidence to frame charges against  Raja's former Private Secretary RK Chandolia and former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura.

In addition, it  said there was evidence for framing of charges  against Raja, Behura and Chandolia under section 409 of the IPC for the offence of breach of trust against them which attracts maximum punishment of life term.

With an important milestone crossed in the case, the accused can now now move for bail as observed by the Supreme Court during the hearing of bail petition by Kanimozhi earlier.

Special CBI Judge OP Saini said evidence is there for framing of charges against telecom firms Reliance Telecom, Swan Telecom and Unitech (Tamil Nadu) Wireless.

The judge also said CBI has also brought evidence to frame charges against corporate executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group's Managing Director Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara, Group's President and Hari Nair, senior Vice President.

Others against whom charges will be framed are Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, his cousin Asif Balwa, their colleague Rajeev Agarwal, Unitech's MD Sanjay Chandra and DB Realty MD Vinod Goenka.

The judge said there was prima facie evidence for framing charges also against Kalaignar TV's MD Sharad Kumar and Bollywood filmmaker Karim Morani.