2G scam: Corporates? bail reserved

A special court on Friday reserved order on corporates’ bail till April 20 in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will hear the bail applications moved by Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom, Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, and three officials of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhani Ambani group -Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara, on April 20.

The CBI opposed the bail pleas and sought detention of the five corporates on Friday, saying there are possibilities that the accused will flee the country if granted bail.

“The accused are holding high positions and now that the names of witnesses are disclosed, some of whom are directly working under (them) or are amenable to their directions, possibility of winning over and/or influencing the witnesses is clearly present,” the CBI told Judge O P Saini.

“Considering the matter on record, complicity of present accused in the crime is clearly made out. The act complained of and offences alleged are far serious having made deep inroads in public interest and financial affairs of the state,” the CBI said.

The CBI had named the five corporate along with former telecom minister A Raja, his personal aide RK Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa in its 80,000-page chargesheet.

In perhaps the biggest scam in Independent India, allegedly masterminded by ex-minister A Raja, telecoms spectrum was given away at throwaway prices in 2008 causing a potential revenue loss of up to Rs 1.76 crore.