Kanimozhi charged with conspiracy in 2G scam case

Tuesday, 26 April 2011, 00:12 IST   |    1 Comments
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Kanimozhi charged with conspiracy in 2G scam case
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named five more people, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, co-accused in the case involving the award of second generation (2G) phone spectrum. The supplementary chargesheet, the second thus far, filed by the premier probe agency in a special court here also names as co-accused Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV, Karim Morani of Cineyug Films, and Asif Balwa and Rajiv B. Agarwal of Kusegaon Realty. "I don't want to comment now," Kanimozhi told in Chennai. Dayalu Ammal, wife of Karunanidhi and stepmother of Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, does not figure in the charges filed on Monday as speculated by a section of the media. The probe agency had first named as accused former communications minister A. Raja, his personal aide R.K. Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa. Later, five more corporate executives were added to the list as co-accused - Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom, Sanjay Chandra of Unitech and three officials of Anil Ambani Group: Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara. All nine are in judicial custody. The case involves award of telecom spectrum to private players, which the investigative agency says was done in a fraudulent manner, causing losses worth billions of rupees to the exchequer. The case had taken a serious turn after Raja, a leader of the DMK, resigned November 14 as communications minister. This was after the official auditor held that his policy on spectrum allocation had led to a loss of several billion dollars to the exchequer. While the former minister was arrested by the probe agency in the national capital Feb 2, along with Behura and Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoter Balwa was arrested from Pune on Feb 8. Raja, his aide and officials from the Department of Telecom (DoT) face charges for their roles in awarding radio frequency. The former minister also faces charges of forgery, while Chandolia and Behura have been accused of misusing their official positions.
Source: IANS