In a new twist to the 2G scam case, the Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to the government and three investigative agencies on three counts — alleged “interference” by the law ministry in the investigation against Essar-Loop; the CBI top brass protecting some department of telecom (DoT) officials; and the slow pace of investigation against former communications minister Dayanidhi Maran.
A special bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly, issuing notices to the Centre, DoT, CBI, ED and the income-tax department, sought their affidavits within 10 days. The notices were issued on a fresh application filed by the main complainant, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, an NGO, making specific charges, saying these were based on certain “internal communications” of the government and its agencies.
On the probe against Essar-Loop, the NGO alleged “the interference of an influential minister in the government, law minister Salman Khurshid, is evident. He is publicly giving a clean chit to Essar/Loop”.
CPIL counsel Prashant Bhushan, allowed to read the allegations in detail by the court, submitted that the CBI director and its director of prosecution “excluded” some key department of telecom officials from being booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the third supplementary chargesheet against Loop, a “benami” front company floated by Essar to get 2G licences, as they were only charged with criminal conspiracy under Section 120-B IPC and cheating under Section 420.
“This exclusion has been facilitated by the intervention of CBI director and director of prosecution, who have apparently overruled the report of the investigating officers, who had found ‘strong evidence’ against the DoT officials,” Mr Bhushan said, adding this would have a direct effect on the trial against them as they would not be tried by the special judge.