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The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on 19 March, moved the Delhi High Court challenging a special CBI court judgment acquitting former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others of charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the 2G scam.
On 21 December 2017, the special CBI court acquitted 17 people who were charged with both Prevention of Corruption Act and PMLA in the 2G case
ED investigation under PMLA revealed that an amount to the tunes of Rs 200 crore was paid by promoters of Swan Telecom (using their group entity Dynamix Realty) to Kalignar TV, in the garb of legitimate financial transaction ie as loan/share application money.
According to the agency, this payment was illegal gratification for Raja in lieu of favours given to Swan Telecom while granting 2G licences.
Further, the investigation revealed that the return of Rs 200 crore has been done along with the additional amount in order to make the receipt of illegal payment appear as a legal and bonafide financial transaction.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the special CBI court had acquitted 17 others, including DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of STPL, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, film producer Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar, Director of Kalaignar TV.
The CBI had in its chargesheet claimed a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the apex court on 2 February 2012.
In the CBI case, Raja, Kanimozhi and 15 others were tried under provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, using as genuine fake documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe.
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