India's former telecoms minister was cleared on Thursday of his alleged role in a multi-billion dollar fraud that ballooned into one of the country's biggest-ever political scandals.
A
special court in New Delhi acquitted A. Raja of corruption and also
dropped charges against a slew of other bureaucrats and corporate
executives implicated in the 2008 scandal that cost the state billions
in lost revenue.
Judge O. P. Saini said India's federal
investigators, who brought the explosive charges against the
high-profile defendants, could not prove allegations of criminality.
“I
have absolutely no hesitation in holding that (the) prosecution has
miserably failed to prove any charge against any accused,” Saini told a
packed courtroom.
Raja, who appeared in court alongside
the other accused, waved and smiled after the verdict as his supporters
let off firecrackers outside.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which brought the case, said it would appeal the judgement in the Delhi High Court.
“The
court has not appreciated (the) evidence in proper perspective. The CBI
will be taking necessary legal remedies in the matter,” spokesman
Abhishek Dayal told reporters.
The so-called “2G spectrum
scam” came to light in 2010 when a government auditor estimated it cost
the treasury as much as $39 billion in lost revenues — equal to India's
defence budget.
India's then-ruling Congress party was
accused of under-pricing licenses and favouring certain firms, seriously
damaging the administration of former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
In 2012, India's top court cancelled 122 licenses for eight firms amid allegations of bribery and wholesale fraud.
Time
Magazine in 2011 included the scam on a list of historic scandals
alongside “Watergate”, which brought down US president Richard Nixon in
1974.
Political fallout
Analysts say the fallout weakened the Congress party and contributed to its heavy defeat at the 2014 general elections.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
won that poll in a landslide, campaigning in part on a pledge to clean
up corruption.
Singh, who was not linked to the scandal
but was accused of turning a blind eye as prime minister, said the
Congress party finally stood vindicated.
“I am glad that
the court has announced unambiguously that all this massive
propaganda... was being done against the UPA (Congress-led alliance)
without any foundation,” he told reporters after the verdict.
Senior Congress politician Shashi Tharoor said it was clear that “innocent people have been wronged”.
“Justice has worked as it is supposed to work in our country,” he said.
But top officials from the ruling BJP called for an appeal.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Congress should not treat the verdict as “a badge of honour”.
“That this was a corrupt, dishonest policy has already been held by the Supreme Court,” he told reporters.
Subramanian
Swamy, a senior BJP politician whose legal challenge of the tender
process sparked the criminal investigation, was confident the acquittal
would be reversed. “This is not a setback but an aberration... This
judgement will definitely be set aside,” he said.
Raja, a politician from southern Tamil Nadu state, resigned as a minister in 2010 but always maintained his innocence.
He was arrested the next year before being released on bail in 2012.
A
lawyer by training, Raja argued his own case and questioned witnesses
throughout the trial as it dragged on for years through India's glacial
legal system.
The scandal pulled in some of India's best
known companies, with executives from Reliance and Sun TV network also
cleared of any wrongdoing on Thursday.
Shares in both companies rallied sharply on the news.
Corruption
in public life has become a burning issue in India, with demonstrations
attracting tens of thousands in recent years calling for cleaner
politics and business.
India ranked 79 out of 176
countries on Transparency International's global corruption index in
2016, in which first-placed Denmark was deemed to have the cleanest
system.