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Contempt notice against Subrata Roy in 2G case

The Supreme Court on Friday slapped a contempt notice on Sahara Group CEO Subrata Roy and two others for allegedly interfering with the investigation in the 2G spectrum case.

The Supreme Court on Friday slapped a contempt notice on Sahara Group CEO Subrata Roy and two others for allegedly interfering with the investigation in the 2G spectrum case.

A bench of Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly sought response from Roy, two journalists from his media organisation ? Upendra Rai and Subodh Jain ? for allegedly threatening and intimidating Enforcement Directorate?s investigating officer, Rajeshwar Singh who is probing the case.

?Having gone through the records we are prima facie of the view that an attempt has been made to interfere with the investigation conducted by Singh in what has been described as 2G spectrum scam case and related matters. Therefore, we take suo motu cognisance and issue notices to them,? the Bench ordered.

The bench also restrained Sahara India news network and its sister concerns from publishing and broadcasting any story or programme relating to Singh in response to 25 questions sent by Subodh Jain to ED official.

?The nexus is more than apparent between the issuance of summons and threat to run series of stories,? the court said. The court said that the way Sahara Media asked Singh personal questions and threatened to do a series of stories after he issued the notice to Roy under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, it prima facie amounted to contempt of court.

The ED had in the morning mentioned the matter accusing Roy of intimidating its officers investigating the 2G spectrum scam and had sought immediate hearing in the matter.

According to the ED, Roy’s Sahara Group had transferred R150 crore to Swan Telecom allegedly in connection with the alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum to telecom companies.

Commenting on the development, a Sahara group statement said, ?Honouring the direction of the Supreme Court, we cannot come out with anything against the concerned official/officials of Enforcement Directorate and we shall wait till we get the permission from the Supreme Court. However, we want to say on a challenging note that there is absolutely nothing wrong on Sahara?s part. We have absolutely no connection with Swan in 2G etc, at all. Media reports say we have R150 cr investment with Swan, whereas the truth is that we don?t have even R1.50 p investment.

These allegations are totally concocted, baseless and with malafide intention. We promise that we shall come out with the full story after we get the Supreme Court?s permission to do so?.

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First published on: 07-05-2011 at 21:39 IST
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