Attorney general GE Vahanvati told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that a special court will be set up by March 29 to exclusively try cases related to the spectrum scam, while the CBI said it would file charges against disgraced former telecom minister A Raja and others by March 31.
The special court headed by justice OP Saini will be set up by March 29, Vahanvati told the Bench comprising justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly, which is monitoring the CBI investigation into the 2G spectrum scam that caused a presumptive loss of R1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
CBI senior counsel KK Venugopal, while submitting the status report filed by the agency in a sealed cover, said that the charge sheet will be filed against Raja, some company executives and former bureaucrats for alleged corruption, money laundering and forgery by March 31.
?The main charge sheet will be filed against A Raja and two companies by March 31. This is only the beginning and many people and companies would also be charge sheeted later on,? he said. The court directed the agency to place before it on March 29 transcripts of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia’s telephonic conversations, tapped by the income tax department, with bureaucrats and others.
The court said it would decide on March 29 whether there should be a monitoring committee of retired or serving officers to head the CBI probe.
Meanwhile, Vahanvati denied that he was questioned by the CBI about his purported legal opinion to DoT on the issue of grant of 2G spectrum licences.
Terming as baseless a news report about the CBI ?grilling? him, he said that DoT had earlier sought his opinion on a press release and the same was sent back after making some notings on it.
He further added that the notings on the release had been tinkered with and the CBI wanted to know about it from him.
The news report had claimed Vahanvati was questioned about the legal opinion that he had given to DoT earlier during his stint as the solicitor general of India on the issue of grant of the 2G spectrum.