Essar-Loop case: Court to hear final arguments on Jan 7

A special court today fixed January 7 for hearing the ongoing final arguments in a case arising out of the 2G scam probe in which promoters of Essar Group and Loop Telecom Limited (LTL) are facing trial.
Special Judge O P Saini, who was scheduled to hear the arguments today, deferred it to January 7 observing that CBI's final arguments in the case in which former Telecom Minister A Raja and 16 others are facing trial was going on.
"Since final arguments for the prosecution in case titled CBI vs A Raja and others are still underway, put up the matter for final arguments for the defence on January 7, 2016," the court said.

CBI had earlier argued in the court that Essar Group was "effectively controlling" LTL which had "fraudulently and dishonestly" misrepresented facts before the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to acquire 2G spectrum licences.
It had claimed that entire funding in this case was by Essar Group of companies and restructuring of firms was done to conceal the fact that the Group controlled LTL.
Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia and Anshuman Ruia, Loop Telecom promoters, Kiran Khaitan, her husband I P Khaitan and Essar Group Director (Strategy and Planning) Vikash Saraf are facing trial in the case, along with three telecom firms -- LTL, Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Tele Holdings Limited.

The five individuals accused, who are out on bail, have denied the charges levelled by CBI. The three firms have also refuted these allegations.

CBI had chargesheeted these accused on December 12, 2011, alleging they had cheated the DoT by using Loop Telecom as a "front" to secure 2G licences in 2008.
On May 25, 2012, the court had framed charges against all the accused under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with section 420 (cheating) of the IPC, while the substantive charge of cheating was made out only against Saraf.
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Raja had earlier argued before the court that he had never misled then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on any issue relating to procedures to be followed for allocation of 2G spectrum allocation.

The other accused in the case are -- Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Unitech Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL) promoters Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka and three executives of Reliance ADAG - Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair.
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also facing trial in the case, besides three telecom companies -- Reliance Telecom Ltd, STPL and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd.
In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.

All these accused, who are out on bail, have denied the allegations levelled against them by CBI.