Tuesday, November 24, 2020

HC rejects Raja plea against nod to CBI, ED to appeal 2G acquittals

HC rejects Raja plea against nod to CBI, ED to appeal 2G acquittals

Abhinav.Garg@timesgroup.com

24.11.2020

New Delhi: The CBI and ED won a partial victory on Monday before the Delhi high court when it rejected several petitions challenging the central government’s sanction to the CBI to appeal against the acquittal of former telecom minister A Raja and others in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation case.

However, the plea for early hearings filed by the probe agency to fast track the decision to get its appeal admitted before the retirement of Justice Brijesh Sethi became infructuous after the judge transferred the case to another bench and listed it for December 1. Justice Sethi retires on November 30 this year. The HC, while rejecting the plea of Raja and others, including ex-telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, also held that amendments to the anti-corruption law made later would not apply to cases registered before, therefore the 2018 amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to Section 13(1)(d) would not come to the rescue of the acquitted accused in this appeal.

Raja, through advocate Manu Sharma, argued that the CBI’s appeal against the acquittals in the 2G case had become infructuous with the coming of the new anti-corruption law. He told the court that the graft charges levelled against him and others in the case have been omitted in the new Prevention of Corruption Act of 2018 and, therefore, prosecution in the instant matter cannot go on.

Apart from Raja and Behura, Raja’s then private secretary, R K Chandolia and Bollywood film producer Karim Morani had also raised the issue in separate applications.

Full report on www.toi.in

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