New Delhi: The CBI is likely to file an appeal before the Delhi High Court against the acquittal of all the accused individuals and entities in the 2G scam case next week.

CBI sources said the agency will challenge the acquittal of the accused by the trial court and the appeal will underscore that the evidence adduced in the chargesheet is strong enough to substantiate the charges but was overlooked during the trial.

The appeal that is under formulation will also emphasise that the evidence cited by the CBI in its chargesheet was strong enough to substantiate the allegations levelled in the FIR, the official said.

“In its appeal, the agency will also stress that the evidence was not appreciated by the court in the correct perspective and the entirety of the material on record. We will challenge the trial court verdict soon,” a senior CBI official said, adding the appeal is carefully formulated.

The move comes after legal opinion sought by the agency suggested there were sufficient reasons and evidentiary materials to go in appeal against the verdict. The Government has also granted permission for filing the appeal, the sources said.

The case was investigated in a professional manner including collection of evidence to prove the charges and challenging the acquittals in the case is only a logical step, another official said.

The Special CBI court had on December 21 acquitted all the 14 individuals, including prime accused and former Telecom Minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi besides three entities of all the charges of corruption and criminality.

“There is no evidence on the record produced before the   Court   indicating   any   criminality   in   the   acts   allegedly committed by the accused persons relating to fixation of cut¬-off date, manipulation of first¬ come first¬ served policy, allocation of spectrum to dual technology applicants, ignoring ineligibility of STPL and Unitech group companies, non-revision of entry fee and transfer of Rs  200 crore to Kalaignar TV (P) Limited as illegal   gratification,” the court had noted in its judgment.

The court also highlighted that Raja was shown to be the “mother lode of conspiracy in the instant case” but “there is no evidence of his no¬holds¬barred immersion in any wrongdoing, conspiracy or corruption,” the court had noted in the 1552-page order.

“The charge sheet of the instant case is based mainly on misreading, selective reading, non-reading and out of context reading of the official record...I may add that many facts recorded in the charge sheet are factually incorrect.... I have absolutely no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove any charge against any of the accused, made in its well-choreographed charge sheet,”  Special Judge Saini had said in his order acquitting all the accused.