Jaitley accuses Sibal of fabricating 2G charges via CBI
Jaitley said that Sibal selected a judge of his choice to try and unearth an 'NDA scam' in telecom.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday accused former telecom minister Kapil Sibal of being responsible for the "fabricated chargesheet" that a special court ruled the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed related to the 2G spectrum scam. The court had ruled on Thursday that there was no incriminating evidence against former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms listed in the chargesheet – HutchisonMax (P) Ltd, Sterling Cellular Ltd and Bharti Cellular Ltd.
Jaitley wrote on his Facebook page in a blog that "there is no doubt that the chargesheet was filed at the behest of Kapil Sibal". "At the time when the telecom sector was riddled with scams, Kapil Sibal selected a retired judge of his choice and asked him to unearth an 'NDA Scam' in telecom,” he added.
Sibal denied the allegation, asking Jaitley to concentrate on the finance ministry and spend less time on blogging. He said, “I never had any conversation with the CBI with regard to the chargesheet, nor did I know about it till it came out in the news what it was filed. I would expect the finance minister of the country to be more responsible.”
A special court on Thursday said the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed a “fabricated and false” chargesheet in the 2G spectrum case. The court 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.