Court gave them time till February 15 to plant trees. Court gave them time till February 15 to plant trees.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the respondents in 2G scam case to plant as many as 15,000 trees in Delhi’s south ridge area after they failed to file their replies to appeals by CBI and ED challenging their acquittal.

Justice Najmi Waziri gave one last chance to two individuals — Shahid Balwa promoter of Swan Telecom Private Limited and Rajeev Agarwal director of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Private Limited — and three firms Dynamic Realty, D B Realty Limited and Nihar Constructions Private Limited to file their responses and ordered them to plant 3,000 trees each.

They have been directed to appear before the forest officer concerned on February 15 for planting trees, the companies will be represented through their authorised signatory.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on March 26.

On December 21, 2017, a special court had acquitted former telecom minister Raja, DMK leader Kanimozhi and others in the CBI and ED cases.

It had acquitted 17 others, including DMK supremo M Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, film producer Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar, Director of Kalaignar TV in the ED case.

On the same day, Raja, Kanimozhi and 15 others were acquitted by the trial court too.

Last year on March 19, the ED challenged the special court’s order in the high court which had acquitted all the accused. A day later, the CBI too challenged the acquittal order in the high court.

In its chargesheet, the ED had alleged that Rs 200 crore was paid by STPL promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.

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.

Special Judge O P Saini, however, had held that the prosecution had “miserably failed” to prove the charges.

(With PTI inputs)

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