Kanimozhi waves at supporters outside the Patiala House Court after being acquitted in the 2G case.
After former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK leader Kanimozhi and all the other accused in the 2G scam, described as India's biggest telecom scandal, were today acquitted by a special court, DMK chief M Karunanidhi's teary-eyed daughter Kanimozhi thanked her supporters outside the Patiala House court.
"Justice has prevailed," she told NDTV and added, "I would love to thank my family, my party leaders and everyone who stood by me."
While declaring all the accused not guilty in the 1.76 lakh crore scam, the judge said the CBI had failed to provide evidence against them.
According to Mr Raja's lawyer, the judge said, "I have no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the charges."
Reacting to the judgement, top Congress leaders reiterated there was no scam in the allotment of second generation or 2G licences during former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's Congress-led UPA government at the centre.
"The judgement speaks for itself," said Dr Singh. His government was continuously attacked by the BJP, which accused him of allowing a massive telecom scam during his regime. "I am glad the court has pronounced that all this massive propaganda that was being done against the UPA was without any foundation," said the former Prime Minister.
"Allegation of a major scam involving the highest levels of government was never true, was not correct and that has been established today," former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.
Another Congress leader Kapil Sibal suggested that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "should come to the house and give a clarification". "This govt was formed on the basis that UPA was embroiled in 2G scam and other scams, but now it has been proved that it was just a scam of lies by the opposition," he said.
Mr Sibal also sought an apology from Vinod Rai, who as the then Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had in his telecom audit report estimated a massive presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the state exchequer by allocating 2G spectrum licences at allegedly throwaway prices.
During his term as Telecom Minister, Mr Sibal claimed, there was zero loss to the exchequer and no wrong had taken place in the allocation of licences.
"Clearly the court found that innocent people have been wronged. Justice has worked as it is supposed to work in our country," Congress leader Shashi Tharoor added.
On Twitter, Congress national spokesperson Khushbu Sundar demanded to know if "the BJP and AIADMK (will) now tender an apology for calling UPA n DMK govt a scam alliance after the acquittal of all those who were accused in 2G?"
"We the Congress have always believed in serving the nation and working towards the betterment of the people of this country.. Acquittal from 2G case is a clear picture of SatyaMevJayate.. You can never take away the spirit of Congress," said Khushbu in another tweet.
Senior DMK leader Durai Murugan said "victory begins now". "Conspiracies were hatched against us but all have been blown away now," he said.
However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley criticised the Congress for "treating 2G verdict as badge of honour". "Its zero loss theory was proven wrong when Supreme Court quashed spectrum allocation," Mr Jaitley said during a press conference right after the verdict.