2G verdict: Congress says truth prevailed; don't treat it as 'badge of honour', tells BJP

New Delhi: The acquittal of all the accused in the 2G case by a special court on Thursday triggered a major political slugfest between the BJP and the Opposition.

Reacting to the verdict, the Congress said that the "truth" had finally prevailed. On the other hand, the ruling party asked it not to treat the verdict as a "badge of honour".

Alleging that the BJP, which was in Opposition then, had spread a "propaganda", the Congress demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the saffron party apologise to the nation for doing so.

What Congress said:

Congress veteran Manmohan Singh, who was the PM when the alleged scam took place, reacted saying the verdict made it clear that the "massive propaganda" against the UPA was without any foundation.

"I do not want to boast (about) anything. The court's judgement has to be respected. I am glad that the court has pronounced unambiguously. All the massive propaganda which was being done against the UPA was without any foundation. The judgement speaks for itself," Singh told reporters, PTI reported.

Former Union minister P Chidambaram echoed Singh's view, saying that the allegations of a major scam involving the highest levels of government was "never true and not correct" and the verdict established that.

Congress MP and former telecom minister Kapil Sibal also demanded an apology from former CAG Vinod Rai and the BJP, asserting that he has been saying from day one that there was no loss. "I have been vindicated today. In fact, it is Vinod Rai who must apologise to the nation," he said.

What the BJP said:

On the other hand, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hit back, saying the Congress should not treat the 2G verdict as a "badge of honour".

The party's "zero loss theory" was proved wrong when the apex court squashed spectrum allocation in 2012, said.

Though the trial court verdict says nobody was guilty of corruption, investigating agencies will study the case history and look into it, Jaitley asserted.

"The Congress is treating 2G verdict as a badge of honour, but its zero loss theory was proven wrong when the Supreme Court quashed spectrum allocation in February 2012," he told reporters.

And, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who was one of the petitioners in the case, said the government should immediately appeal in the Delhi High Court against the acquittal.

What the court said:

DMK MP Kanimozhi and former telecom minister A Raja and all other accused were acquitted in the 2G spectrum allocation scam cases by the special court which held that the prosecution "miserably failed" to prove the charges.

The CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of licences for the 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the top court on February 2, 2012. 

"I have absolutely no hesitation in holding that prosecution has miserably failed to prove any of the charges against any of the accused," Special CBI Judge OP Saini said in his verdicts in three separate cases related to the 2G scam in a packed courtroom at the Patiala House premises.

Dealing a body blow to the CAG's and CBI's estimation of huge loss in grant of 2G licences, judge Saini in his 1,552- page verdict in the main CBI case held that some people "artfully" arranged few selected facts and created a scam "when there was none".

The three judgements, which together ran into 2,183 pages, included the one that stemmed out of the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s money laundering case.

Raja remained in jail for over 15 months while Kanimozhi was in prison for six months before they were granted bail. Other accused persons were also in jail for varying terms.

Meanwhile, the ED and the CBI said they will challenge before the Delhi High Court the verdicts. In all, there were 17 accused, including Raja and Kanimozhi in this case.

(With PTI inputs)