New Delhi, April 14: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday opposed the bail applications of five corporate honchos, presented in a special court in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.
Special CBI Judge OP Saini said, “The CBI is granted time to file reply and put up the matter for arguments on April 15.” Notably the name of these five accused were mentioned in the first chargesheet filed by the CBI on April 2. The four co-accused in the case including former Telecom Minister A Raja, his personal secretary RK Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa were also present in the court.
The probe agency opposed the bail applications of Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom, Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, and three officials of Reliance Anil Dhirubhani Ambani group — Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara. These corporate executives appeared before the special court for the first time and sought bail on the ground that they were not arrested during the investigation.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi who appeared in the court on behalf of Vinod Goenka, managing director of DB Realty said, “The accused are entitled for relief on bail.” Counsel for the other co-accused advanced similar arguments and said since formal charges have already been filed and they have been cooperating with the investigating agency, they deserved to get bail. Senior advocate UU Lalit, who has been appointed as Special Public Prosecutor by the Supreme Court, vehemently opposed the applications, saying, “Accused are not entitled for release on bail ipso facto (by default) on appearance before the court. They will have to justify their bail pleas.”
Citing legal provisions relating to the bail, Lalit said, “The suspects have now become accused after the filing of the charge sheet. Now it is between them and the court. The accused will have to justify their release on bail. The fact that they were not arrested during the investigation does not entitle them to be released on bail.” Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, appearing for Unitech Wireless MD Sanjay Chandra, said, “Can the prosecution continue to change its stand? What is the change in circumstances except the change in public prosecutor. The accused who have not been arrested during the investigation are entitled to be released on bail on their appearance before the court of law,” Tulsi said.
After the brief arguments, Lalit sought time to file replies to the bail pleas of the accused. The request was permitted by the court which fixed the matter for further hearing on April 15. The CBI had filed its first chargesheet in the case on April 2 against nine persons and three leading Telecom companies — Reliance Telecom Ltd, Swan Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd. The five corporate executives who were not arrested in the case, had been summoned by the special court, specifically set up to try the 2G scam accused, to appear before it on Wednesday.
——–Agencies