Court begins trial in 2G case

Trial commenced on Friday in a Delhi court in the 2G spectrum allocation case in which former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, corporate honchos and telecom firms are among the high-profile accused. 

Special CBI Judge O P Saini started recording statement of Anand Subramaniam, Assistant Vice President of Reliance Capital Ltd, as a prosecution witness.

The court had also summoned for Friday two other prosecution witnesses -- Group President of Reliance A N Sethuraman and Chief Regulatory Officer of Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd Vinod Kumar Budhiraja -- for their examination.

The CBI, in its first list, had submitted names of 28 persons to be examined as prosecution witnesses before the court in the month of November.

The court after framing charges against 17 accused, including three telecom firms, had slated the trial to begin from Friday.

In the first list, out of 28, 11 witnesses are from Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) which suggest that the agency wants to deal first with the charges against accused firms Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) and Shahid Usman Balwa promoted Swan Telecom.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the court had framed charges against Reliance ADAG Managing Director Gautam Doshi, its Group President Surendra Pipara, its senior Vice President Hari Nair, Shahid Usman Balwa, Unitech Ltd's MD Sanjay Chandra, DB Realty MD Vinod Goenka, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar and Bollywood filmmaker Karim Morani.

Former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's former Private Secretary R K Chandolia, directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal, and three telecom firms -- RTL, Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd have also been put on trial in the case.

The charges framed against all the accused under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act deal with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, getting bribe and criminal misconduct by public servant.

The offences entail punishment ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment.