2G scam: Shahid Usman Balwa bail plea rejected

A special CBI court hearing the 2G scam case on Tuesday dismissed the bail pleas of DB Realty and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa.

The bail applications of his cousin Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal, both directors of Kusegaon Realty, a firm accused of channelizing money to DMK-family run Kalaignar TV, were also dismissed by Special CBI Judge O P Saini.

The Delhi High Court on Monday had rejected bail application of top five other corporate executives arrested in 2G scam.

The high court had rejected bail petition of 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.

All of them are lodged in Tihar Jail.

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

The CBI second chargesheet says Balwa along with Vinod Goenka, routed Rss. 200 crore to DMK family-run Kalaignar TV, through Kusegaon Realty.

Bollywood producer and Cineyug Films promoter Karim Morani also had to appear before the CBI court here in the 2G spectrum scam on Tuesday, after trying to elude it on the ground of health.

Morani, whose company also was accused of routing money to Kalaignar TV as well, was forced to appear before court after the Special CBI Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea Monday.

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 lakh crore.