Supreme Court verdict on monitoring of 2G scam probe

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court will on Thursday decide on who will monitor the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe on the 2G spectrum scam case.

A bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly had reserved the judgement on December 8 on the petition filed by an NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) after a marathon hearing on the issue.

The CPIL wanted the apex court to monitor the CBI probe.

The court had heard the arguments forwarded by the CPIL, CBI, Enforcement Directorate(ED), Department of Telecommunication and former Telecom Minister A Raja, who resigned from the Cabinet in the wake of the scam.

The bench had observed “the issue raised in the case is not limited to only Rs 1.76 lakh crore but has a much wider compass.

The apex court also pointed out that the government was enacting a number of laws, it was not creating adequate courts as the result of which the existing courts are over burdened and there is no way special cases like the present one can be dealt in an expeditious manner.

The apex court, which is hearing various cases related to the 2G scam, had come down heavily on the CBI recently, asking why it had not questioned Raja even though the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) faulted him for under-valuing the 2G spectrum.

The court had also asked why officials who would have been in the know, like the former Telecom Secretary, had not been questioned. It also asked Raja why he had overruled the Prime Minister on 2G spectrum.

Raja was forced to resign as Minister on last month in the wake of the CAG”s report that the rates at which 2G spectrum was allotted resulted in a possible loss to the exchequer to the tune of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. (ANI)