The Delhi High Court on Friday admitted the Central Bureau of Investigation’s appeal challenging acquittal of former telecom minister A Raja, firms and others in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said on the basis of the material on record and the submissions made by the lawyers for the parties, a prima facie case is made out by the CBI which requires deeper examination and the appeal needs to be heard in detail.
“Leave to appeal is granted. List the appeal for hearing in May,” the judge said.
The high court passed the judgement on CBI’s “leave to appeal”, paving the way for dealing with the appeal on merits against the trial court’s verdict.
The appeal was filed by the CBI in 2018.
“Leave to appeal” is a formal permission granted by a court to a party to challenge a decision in a higher court.
The judge had reserved his decision on this aspect on March 14.
The special court had, on December 21, 2017, acquitted Raja, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi and others in the CBI and ED cases related to the 2G scam.
On March 19, 2018, Enforcement Directorate approached the high court, challenging a special court’s December 2017 order acquitting all the accused in the case, claiming that this was a “classic case” of money laundering and that the special CBI judge, while acquitting the accused persons, “wrongly interpreted” the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
A day later, the CBI too challenged the acquittal of the accused in the high court. In its appeal, CBI has argued that the 2017 acquittal judgement in the 2G case can have a major impact on corruption cases in the country.
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