2G scam: SC to appoint special public prosecutor on Monday

2G scam: SC to appoint special public prosecutor on Monday

The Supreme Court will on Monday pass an order on the appointment of a special public prosecutor for holding the trial of former telecom minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly will also pass direction for holding the trial in the case on day-to-day basis without any adjournments to bring to justice all persons involved in the scam in which high profile politicians, top corporate honchos, bureaucrats and telecom firms have come under scrutiny.

Brushing aside the Centre's objections, the apex court had on 8^th April said it would pass an order for the appointment of senior advocate U U Lalit as special public prosecutor.

Turning down the Centre's plea seeking a week's time to come out with an alternate name, a SC bench had said it will pass a formal order on the appointment of Lalit on 11^th April.

"We intend to pass an order directing the government to come out with a notification on the appointment of Lalit as special public prosecutor. He will also have the choice to suggest the names of other prosecutors to assist him in the case," the bench had said.

The court had said that it would also direct the special court, exclusively set up for holding the trial of the 2G scam, to hold the trial without any adjournment.

"We would make it clear in our order that the special court would hold trial on day-to-day basis and no adjournment on any basis would be allowed," the bench had said, adding that no court shall entertain any petition or application in the case and anything relating to the case has to be filed in the Supreme Court.

The CBI has registered cases against Raja and others under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The agency in its first charge sheet alleged that Raja, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's personal secretary R K Chandolia, Shahid Usman Balwa and Sanjay Chandra entered into a conspiracy for manipulating the procedure for allocation of spectrum with the aim of favouring companies like Swan Telecom and Unitech Group.

Others named in the chargesheet 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, group managing director and two senior vice- presidents of Mumbai-based Reliance Telecom Company.