A special court on Thursday said the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed a “fabricated and false” chargesheet in the 2G spectrum case. The bench also let off former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms – HutchisonMax (P) Ltd, Sterling Cellular Ltd and Bharti Cellular Ltd. They had all been charged with criminal conspiracy under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court ruled that there was no incriminating evidence against the accused, and the CBI should take action against officials who had filed the chargesheet, which was full of distorted facts. The CBI had claimed that Ghosh, who was the telecom secretary between 2000 and 2002, had allotted additional spectrum to the three companies at paltry prices, causing the government a loss of Rs 846 crore.