Supreme Court refuses to grant protection to Essar and Loop : 2G

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant interim stay on the summonses issued against Essar Group and Loop Telecom and their officials by a Special CBI court to appear before it on February 22 for their alleged involvement in a 2G scam.

A bench of justices comprising of Justice G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya, however agreed to hear their petitionchallenging the jurisdiction of the special court to hear the case on the ground that corruption charges has not been levelled against them like other accused in the multi-crore rupee scam.

The bench said that they would quash the proceedings if they attain into a conclusion that the the court have no jurisdiction to hear the case.

The bench also issued a notice to CBI and other parties and asked them to file their responses within two weeks on the companie's plea.

The two telecom firms, in their petitions, said that thay have been chargesheeted under Section 420 (Cheating), Section 120 B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the IPC and the charges were triable by a Magistrate and not by a Special Court constituted by the Prevention of Corruption Act for hearing the 2G case.

Other accused named in the chargesheet are namely Essar Group promoters Anshuman and Ravi Ruia along with Loop Telecom promoters Kiran Khaitan, her usband I.P. Khaitan and Essar Group Director Vikas Saraf.

They have been asked to appear before the CBI Special Judge O.P. Saini on February 22.

The companies and their promoters have denied any kind of involvement in the 2G scam.

Reported by

    AR

     

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