Supreme Court's Observations Embarrass Kapil Sibal

SUPREME COURT’S QUESTION EMBARRASSING TO KAPIL SIBAL

The Supreme Court has embarrassed the Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal through its instructions to the CBI to trace out the Rs.200 crore amount given to Kalaignar TV related to 2G scam. Kapil Sibal has been maintaining that no scam ever took place in 2G Spectrum allocation by the erstwhile Telecom Minister A. Raja. Now Sibal will have to break his head to find the answer for the question posed by the Supreme Court and defend Raja, his predecessor.

Kanimozhi is the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s daughter. She holds 20% stake in her father’s Kalaignar TV though her father himself does not have any stake in the venture. She was charge sheeted for her role in 2G spectrum scam immediately after the DMK lost the State Assembly elections in the middle of May. Subsequently she was denied bail by the CBI Special Court, arrested and lodged in Tihar jail. She appealed against the CBI Court’s decision but the Delhi High Court refused to yield. Now she has appealed along with Sharath Kumar, Managing Director of KalaignarTV in the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court has asked an uneasy question, which Sibal may find difficult to answer.

If there is no loss to the government in the allocation of 2G spectrum, and if R. Raja had not done anything wrong, as stressed by Kapil Sibal, then why should the Supreme Court pose this question to the CBI? Kapil Sibal may find difficult to answer this question.

Actually the CBI will have to trace the Rs.200 crore to the recipient from Kalaignar TV. Kalaignar TV had received the amount as an investment in its shares, according to its version. But when negotiations broke down, it was subsequently converted to a loan with an interest of 10% p.a and repaid after tax deduction. This is Kanimozhi’s version of the amount received. But CBI disagrees with this version and says that the amount was given to Kalaignar TV as a bribery by parties who had been benefited by the out of the way allocation of 2G spectrum by Raja.

But after Kalaignar TV had remitted this amount back to the beneficiaries, where had it gone? This is the question raised by the Supreme Court. It had given CBI one week time to reply. This one week time will also be useful to Kapil Sibal to ready his reply to the press. But the answer is easy to find. Kalaignar TV would have remitted this money of Rs.200 crore plus interest at ten per cent per annum minus tax deductions by way of a cheque or a bank draft payable in India. From the Reserve Bank of India’s clearing house, it is easy to check to whose account this amount had been credited. From there the trail should start and the CBI can easily trace out the status of this money remitted within the stipulated time.

In this investigation, we may hear something shocking. It looks like a mega serial in TV. The next episode in a mega serial is viewed by viewers, keeping their fingers crossed. The same is the case in 2G case also. Not only Kapil Sibal, but all the followers and players of the 2G case are keeping their fingers crossed about the whereabouts of this Rs.200 crore. Only after it is traced out, we can see any progress in Kanimozhi’s bail application.