‘Accused Have Suffered Enough’: Former AG Mukul Rohatgi on 2G Case

Mukul Rohtagi, Former Attorney General, India.

(Photo Courtesy: Alchetron)

Former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi hailed the Delhi Patiala House court’s verdict- acquitting those accused in the 2G case, stating that those accused involved in the case had ‘suffered enough.’

The prosecution’s main argument was on clause 8 – it is a civil issue. It was never an issue of criminality. This is what the court also held. All the people of the industry who were accused have suffered enough, licenses cancelled, they were also unable to travel abroad.

As a senior advocate, Rohatgi had defended several of the accused in the case. He later recused himself from the case in 2014, when as the top government lawyer he had to stand against the accused in the case.

A special court on Thursday acquitted 19 accused, including former telecom minister A Raja, in the Enforcement Directorate's money laundering case relating to the 2G scam.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, Special Judge OP Saini also acquitted Shahid Balwa, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, Rajiv Aggarwal, Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar in connection with the case.

In its chargesheet, the ED had also named DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal as an accused in the case, in which it had alleged that Rs 200 crore was paid by Swan Telecom (P) Ltd (STPL) promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.

In its final report, the ED had named 10 individuals and nine companies as accused and listed them in the chargesheet for the offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Besides Kalaignar TV, the other companies accused in the case were STPL (now Etisalat DB Telecom (P) Ltd), Kusegaon Realty (P) Ltd, Cineyug Media & Entertainment (P) Ltd, Dynamix Realty, Eversmile Construction Company (P) Ltd, Conwood Construction & Developers (P) Ltd, DB Realty Ltd and Mystical Construction (P) Ltd (earlier known as Nihar Constructions (P) Ltd).