FM Arun Jaitley targets Kapil Sibal as court throws out CBI case of 2002

New Delhi: Finance Minister c on Thursday targeted former Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal at "whose behest" CBI filed a charge sheet in a case of additional spectrum of 2002 which a special court today dismissed as "fabricated".

"Indeed the officers are guilty of fabricating charges against an honest Civil Servant and others. There is no doubt that the charge sheet 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," he wrote a post on Facebook.

He was reacting to CBI Special Judge O P Saini discharging all the accused including former Telecom Secretary Shymal Ghosh in a case related to fixation of spectrum user charges in 2002 during the NDA regime. The then telecom minister late Pramod Mahajan was named as a deceased accused.

Jaitley said the retired judge had opined that there could be an arbitrariness in fixing the Spectrum User Charges for allocation of additional spectrum.

"An unsustainable 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," he said.

The Finance Minister said he had consistently maintained that this charge sheet was full of fabricated facts. "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?" he asked.

A special 2G court today discharged former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms in the 2002 additional spectrum allocation case, saying that the charge sheet was "full of distorted and fabricated facts" and agency has tried to "mislead" the court.