Swan Telecom promoter's brother welcomes 2G scam verdict

Hussain Balwa, brother of Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, on Thursday welcomed a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court's verdict on the 2G spectrum allocation cases and said that they knew all along that justice would be served.

"We are relieved of the huge tension we had. What kept us going was that we knew all along that law of the land will be upheld. We knew that if there will be a fair trial it will give us the justice", Hussain told the media here.

The verdict, acquitting all the accused, including former telecom minister A Raja and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi, in the case, was announced on Thursday morning, nearly seven years after the first arrest was made by the CBI in 2011.

As soon as the verdict came out, the DMK supporters burst into celebrations.

The alleged scam relates to the granting of 2G spectrum licence allocations in 2007-08, which caused, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer.

Accused firms were Unitech Wireless, Swan Telecom, Reliance Telecom, Loop Telecom, Loop Mobile India, Essar Tele Holding and Essar Group.

The scam was among the major corruption scandals that came to light during the second term of the UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh.