Several senior lawyers having strong affiliation with DMK expressed surprise over the CBI’s latest move to add such a serious charge in the 2G spectrum scam at a stage when special judge O.P. Saini was all set to deliver his order on framing of the charge.
They said in the wake of the addition of the new charge, arguments on framing of the charges would have to be reopened and thus it would cause further delay in seeking bail by the accused as the Supreme Court in Ms Kanimozhi’s bail order had linked her moving a fresh petition for bail with the order for framing of charges by the trial judge.
The CBI application said “accused (former communications minister A. Raja, his former private secretary R.K. Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura) have committed an offence punishable under section 409 of IPC while the other co-accused had committed an offence under Section 409 read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code within the cognizance of this court (special judge) and hence should be charged accordingly.”
The investigating agency’s application particularly with connotations “dishonest disposing” of 2G spectrum in “violation the existing polices” had far wider implications for all those who were part of the decision making process and implementing the policy, the apparently agitated DMK supporting lawyers said.
The implications became far more serious when on the face of government’s consistent stand that there was “no loss, or criminality” on the part of those who took the decision on fixing spectrum price as the charge of “criminal breach of trust” apparently amounted to “acknowledging” the loss, they claimed.