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New Delhi: The Delhi
High Court Monday granted bail to DMK MP Kanimozhi and four other
accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. The order on the
bail plea of former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura was
reserved.
Allowing bail to Kanimozhi and the other four, Justice V.K. Shali
said all the five bail "applications are allowed".
Conditions set by the Supreme Court while granting bail to five
co-accused and telecom companies' officials will also apply in the
case of Kanimozhi and the other four, the high court said.
Besides Kanimozhi, bail was granted to Kalaignar TV chief Sharad
Kumar, Cineyug Films' Karim Morani, and Kusegaon Fruits and
Vegetables Pvt. Ltd. directors Asif Balwa and Rajeev B. Agarwal.
On May 20, Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar were named co-accused and
sent to judicial custody. Ten days later Morani also joined them
in jail.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier opposed Behura's
bail, saying that he, along with former telecom minister A. Raja
and his former private secretary R.K. Chandolia, was involved in
the conspiracy for grant of telecom licences.
The probe agency did not oppose the bail applications of Kanimozhi
and the other four.
Behura, Kanimozhi and four others moved the court Nov 23 for early
hearing of their bail applications after the apex court granted
bail to five corporate executives co-accused in the case -- Sanjay
Chandra of Unitech Wireless, Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom and
Reliance Group's Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair.
The apex court ordered the release of the five co-accused, in
custody since April, on a surety of Rs.5 lakh each but also
allowed the CBI to seek a review if the bail was misused.
Now, only four individuals, of the 14 arrested by the CBI in the
case, remain behind bars. These are Raja, Behura, Chandolia and
Swan Telecom's Shahid Usman Balwa.
Chandolia and Shahid Usman Balwa's bail application would be taken
up by CBI Special Court Judge O.P. Saini Wednesday.
Raja has still not applied for bail since his arrest Feb 2.
Raja, a DMK MP, resigned as minister Nov 14 last year after the
Comptroller and Auditor General reported that the faulty auction
process in the allocation of second-generation telephony had led
to a notional loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore.
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