The Supreme Court  gave the CBI time till April 2 to file the 2G case chargesheet against former telecom minister A. Raja and others after the agency said it couldn’t meet the court’s March 31 deadline.

The CBI had earlier assured the court several times that it would file the first chargesheet — in a special court set up to try 2G cases — by March 31. But , agency counsel K.K. Venugopal said the CBI was still readying the 80,000-page chargesheet against Raja, four former telecom officials and two companies.

“Given the status of the persons involved in the case and the fact that they can get themselves a good defence… we expect technical objections to be raised at every stage. There will be roadblocks. We have to file a proper chargesheet,” he said.

At one point, the two-judge bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly asked to have a look at the chargesheet before it was filed. But after Venugopal cited case law to argue it couldn’t do so, the bench did not insist.

The court had earlier told the CBI: “Look out for the best man. We want the most competent person to be appointed as the special public prosecutor and he will deal with no other case.”

On April 1, the court will hear an application by lawyer Prashant Bhushan seeking a CBI probe into the death of A.M. Sadhick Batcha, a Raja aide who died a day before the agency was to question him.

On April 2, the court will hear a petition by former law minister Shanti Bhushan who wants the CBI to take a look at the 1999 telecom allotments too.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which submitted status reports on their probes , told the court that Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom were allegedly used as front companies by the Reliance Group (ADAG) and Essar to get 2G spectrum illegally.

They said the 2G case involved large-scale foreign exchange violation and benami transactions, and that the ED would start attaching the properties of the erring persons soon after the chargesheet was filed.

Venugopal said all domestic investigations would be wrapped up in two months but it would take longer to probe the overseas money trails. He added that the Niira Radia tapes would be used as evidence during the trial.

He said several supplementary chargesheets would be filed soon, the first by April 25. It will deal with overseas money transfers, the dual licensing policy and the resumption of licences after cancellation, among other things.

The court asked the income tax department to submit a status report and promised protection for the CBI investigators and whistleblowers, if necessary.