November 11, 2011 / 12:47 IST
The trial in the biggest corruption case in the country began on Friday as Special CBI Judge OP Saini started recording the statement of Assistant Vice President of Reliance Capital Anand Subramaniam as prosecution witness in the case.
Subramaniam's chief examination by CBI is over and most of the accused refused to cross-examine him. Reliance Telecom executives said they can't cross-examine till they are given a written copy of what Subramaniam said.
One of the top executives of Reliance Telecom Gautam Doshi's lawyer said they can't hear anything in the crowded court room.
The trial began with a noisy start in the courtroom as ruckus broke out in court over the lack of space and the defence counsel objecting to trial in cramped space.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja on Friday told the court that he will not cross examine prosecution witnesses till the CBI probe is over in the case. But the court dismissed Raja's application.
DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa's lawyer Majid Memon objected on the ground that Raja is the prime accused. The entire conspiracy starts from his doors and he not participating in trial at this stage hampers the case of other accused.
In all, 150 witnesses will be examined in the Supreme Court monitored trial involving high profile individuals like former Telecom Minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi.
The CBI will first be dealing with the Reliance-Swan link and try to establish that Swan Telecom was a front for Reliance Telecom and this was a violation of clause 8 of the telecom policy.
Group President of Reliance AN Sethuraman had earlier submitted the application for the GSM licence on behalf of Swan Telecom in 2007 when the two companies were one.
Three Reliance Telecom executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair are behind bars for cheating and conspiracy, essentially hiding the fact that Swan was a cross holding of Reliance at the time of applying for the 2G licences.
Swan Telecom was bought over from Reliance telecom by DB Realty promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka are also behind bars.
Just a day before the trail was set to begin, DMK Chief Karunanidhi had expressed concern over the functioning of the judiciary. Without making a mention of his daughter Kanimozhi who continues to be in jail since May, Karunandihi did question the courts.
ADAG-led RTL has been put on trial by the court which said Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd was "just a mask" for RTL.
The court had said the accused Group Managing Director of Reliance ADAG Gautam Doshi, its Group President Surendra Pipara and its senior Vice President Hari Nair had passed on the ineligible firm Swan Telecom to accused Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of M/s DB Realty Ltd.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the court had framed charges against Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara, 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 offences entail punishment ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment.
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.
