A Special 2G court on Wednesday said it would pronounce on October 15 its order on framing of charges in the 2002 additional spectrum allocation case in which former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms are accused.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini, who was scheduled to pass the order on framing of charges as well as <g data-gr-id="23">order</g> on the bail plea of Ghosh, deferred it saying the order is not yet ready.
"On account of the voluminous record of the case, the order is not ready. Put up for order on October 15," the judge said.
During the brief hearing, some of the accused filed some written submissions before the court which took it on record.
Ghosh and three telecom companies – Hutchison Max (P) Ltd, Sterling Cellular Ltd and Bharti Cellular Ltd – were charge sheeted by CBI in the case relating to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) allocating additional spectrum that had allegedly led to a loss of Rs 846.44 crore to the exchequer. Ghosh, a retired 1965 batch IAS officer, was the Telecom Secretary between February 7, <g data-gr-id="20">2000</g> and May 31, 2002.
During arguments on charges, CBI had said that Ghosh had given additional spectrum to telecom firms at "throwaway prices" causing a huge loss to the exchequer.
Ghosh had countered CBI's arguments, saying private firms were not the only beneficiaries of surplus radio waves, but state-run MTNL and BSNL had also benefitted.