New Delhi: The special 2G court on Monday fixed 10 December for hearing the additional spectrum case in which Bharti Cellular Ltd chairman and managing director (CMD) Sunil Mittal, Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia and others have been summoned as accused.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge O.P. Saini adjourned the proceedings after the defence counsel informed the court that the pleas filed by Mittal and Ruia, challenging the 19 March 2013 order of the trial court summoning them as accused in the case, are pending before the Supreme Court.

The apex court, in its 26 April last year interim order, had said that hearing against Mittal and Ruia in the case will remain “postponed" in the trial court until further orders. Mittal, Ruia and Canada-based NRI Asim Ghosh, who was then a managing director of accused firm Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt. Ltd, were summoned as accused by the trial court.

The court had also summoned former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh, who was named by CBI in the charge sheet as accused in the case along with three telecom firms. Mittal, Ruia and Asim Ghosh were not named as accused in CBI’s charge sheet filed on 21 December 2012 but the court had summoned them as accused while taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the agency.

Besides Shyamal Ghosh, three telecom firms Bharti Cellular, Hutchison Max Telecom (now known as Vodafone India Ltd) and Sterling Cellular Ltd (now known as Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd) are also accused in the case.

CBI, in its charge sheet, had named Shyamal Ghosh and the three telecom companies as accused in the case relating to the department of telecommunications (DoT) allocating additional spectrum which had allegedly resulted in a loss of ₹ 846 crore to the exchequer.

In the 57-page charge sheet, CBI has booked Shyamal Ghosh and the three firms for the offences of criminal conspiracy (120-B) of the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

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