2G saga: Court to frame charges against 17 accused tomorrow

The 2G saga will reach an important milestone on Saturday, when OP Saini, the special judge in the CBI trial court, reads out the charges against the 17 accused.

One of the many charges of the CBI that must have caused sleepless nights to Andimuthu Raja, Kanimozhi, the Balwa Brothers and the rest of the accused will the one under section 409 of the IPC. The reason, if convicted under this section, they could get a life term in prison, or up to ten years.
The accused are also facing charges under sections 420, 120B, 468, and 471 of the IPC and various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Raja, his former personal secretary RK Chandolia, former telecom secretary Sidhartha Behura, DB Realty's Shahid, Asif Balwa and Vinod Goenka as well as Unitech's Sanjay Chandra are facing charges of conspiracy to cause losses to the exchequer.
Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK supremo, M Karunanidhi and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar are facing charges of receiving bribes, while the three Reliance ADA Group executives, Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair are facing charges of abetment of criminal conspiracy as well as cheating.
Bollywood producer Karim Morani and Kusegaon Realty's Rajeev Agarwal are facing charges of giving bribes, along with Asif Balwa.
The framing of charges will pave the way for the much awaited trial process in the 2G scam. The onus will be on special public prosecutor Uday Lalit to prove the charges.
An estimated 166 witnesses will depose before the trial court. In addition, the relevance of 80,000 documents related to the case will also be debated.
So, while the trial will be a long drawn affair, the silver lining for the accused under custody is their chances of finally getting bail after months in Tihar jail.