Court discharges ex-Telecom Secy in spectrum allocation scam, says CBI chargesheet false

Special CBI Judge OP Saini observed that the CBI tried to mislead the court and the chargesheet filed by it was full of "distorted facts". The court asked the CBI Director to conduct an inquiry against the "erring officials" for filing such a chargesheet in the case.

"I am reading out the last paragraph of the order. It's a false and fabricated chargesheet and there is no incriminating evidence against any of the accused so they are discharged. The chargesheet is full of distorted facts and an attempt has been made to mislead the court," the judge said.

The "CBI Director is directed to make an inquiry against erring officials", the court said.

Ghosh and three telecom firms -- Hutchison Max(P) Ltd, Sterling Cellular Ltd and Bharti Cellular Ltd -- were chargesheeted in connection with the charge of  allocating additional spectrum that had allegedly led to a loss of Rs 846.44 crore to the state exchequer.

Ghosh, a 1965-batch retired IAS officer, was the Telecom Secretary between February 7, 2000 and May 31, 2002.

CBI had earlier argued that Ghosh had given additional spectrum to the telecom companies at "throwaway prices".

Ghosh had contended that private firms were not the only beneficiaries of surplus radio waves, but state-run MTNL and BSNL had also benefited. 

The accused firms had also countered CBI's loss to the exchequer theory, saying they were allotted "spare radio waves" which would have caused gain to the government.