Constraints stopped you from backing me openly: A Raja writes to Manmohan
Mumbai: Days after a Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court acquitted all 19 accused including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK supremo Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, A Raja has written a deeply emotional letter to his ex-boss and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Assuring Singh of his loyalty, Raja wrote that although he had been a loyal supporter of Singh, "compulsions" prevented the-then Prime Minister from openly supporting him.
Reminding Singh, Raja in the letter said: "I assured you several times that I had done nothing wrong but rather acted in the national interest and that I would prove this."
It went on to say: "I also understand the compulsions that prevented you from openly supporting me. I hope you will acknowledge that I remained loyal and faithful to you -- unlike some senior cabinet colleagues -- and ensured that you did not suffer personal embarrassment in the trial proceedings.
"Now that the truth about 2G is out in the open, perhaps you too, could come forward in my support, which you could not earlier," the letter read.
Interestingly, to this Singh replied saying, "I am very happy that you stand vindicated in the 2G case.”
Former telecom minister A Raja's letter to Manmohan Singh. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)
Former PM Manmohan Singh's reply to A Raja's letter. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)
Pronouncing the scathing judgement, Special CBI judge OP Saini said there was no concrete evidence submitted against the accused.
"There is no evidence on the record produced before the court indicating any criminality in the acts allegedly committed by the accused persons relating to fixation of cutoff date, manipulation of first-come-first-served policy, allocation of spectrum to dual technology applicants, ignoring ineligibility of STPL (Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd) and Unitech group companies, nonrevision of entry fee and transfer of Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV (P) Limited as illegal gratification," Justice Saini said.
Saini further noted that the chargesheet misrepresented the official record and included oral statements of the witnesses that are not acceptable in law.
"The chargesheet of the instant case is based mainly on misreading, selective reading, non-reading and out of context reading of the official record. Further, it is based on some oral statements made by the witnesses during investigation, which the witnesses have not owned up in the witnessbox. Lastly, if statements were made orally by the witnesses, the same were contrary to the official record and thus, not acceptable in law", the Special CBI Judge said.
In its charge sheet filed in April 2011 against A Raja and others, the CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.
All the accused facing trial in these cases had denied allegations levelled against them by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.
