– Arun Jaitley –
The CBI Special Judge Shri O. P. Saini discharged all the accused including Shyamal Ghosh, the former Telecom Secretary in a case relating to fixation of Spectrum User Charges. The Court observed that “there is no doubt that the charge sheet has been filed for extraneous reasons….. Since the charge sheet has been found to be full of distorted and fabricated facts, an attempt has been made to mislead the Court, Director, CBI is directed to conduct an inquiry against the erring officers and take actions as per law.”
Indeed the officers are guilty of fabricating charges against an honest Civil Servant and others. There is no doubt that the Chargesheet was filed at the behest of Shri Kapil Sibal, the Telecom Minister in the UPA Government. At the time when the Telecom sector was riddled with scams, Kapil Sibal selected a retired Judge of his choice and asked him to unearth an “NDA Scam” in Telecom. The Judge opined that there could be anarbitrariness in fixing the Spectrum User Charges for allocation of additional spectrum. Anunsustainable charge sheet was filed against an outstanding and honest Civil Servant Shyamal Ghosh. The idea to attack the NDA was by including the Late Pramod Mahajan in Column II as a deceased accused.
I had consistently maintained that this charge sheet was full of fabricated facts. I had written an Article on 2nd April, 2013 in ‘The Hindustan Times’ commenting on this charge sheet. The last three paragraphs of the Article deals specifically with this charge sheet. A copy of that Article, which appeared on 2nd April, 2013, is enclosed. The Court has vindicated what we had always maintained. The CBI Officers who acted on the dictates of the political government will now face an enquiry. But what about the Ministers who conspired to create a fabricated charge sheet and a retired Judge who, for the sake of a post-retirement assignment, agreed to lend his Offices for the same?
___________________________________
About the Author
Arun Jaitley
Minister of Finance, Information & Broadcasting and Corporate Affairs
__________________________________
Disclaimer : The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of INVC.
_____________________________________________
