SC Gives Bail To All 5 Corporate Honchos In 2G Scam

Mtoday news / ITV

New Delhi, Nov 23: The Supreme Court today granted bail to all five corporate executives charged in the 2G spectrum allocation scam on two sureties of Rs 5 lakh each.

This is the first set of bail granted in the mutli-crore telecom spectrum scam, which according to a Comptroller and Auditor General report caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the state exchequer.

Unitech’s Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom’s Director Vinod Goenka as well of Reliance ADAG officials Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara had been lodged in Tihar jail for over six months.

Vinod Goenka has been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating, abetment of illegal gratification and forgery while Sanjay Chandra is charged with criminal conspiracy for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, accepting bribe/illegal gratification and misuse of office.

 

 

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) Managing Director Gautam Doshi, Reliance Communications Senior Vice-President Surendra Pipara and Reliance ADAG Senior Vice-President Hari Nair have been charged with cheating, abetment to cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal conspiracy for criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, accepting bribe/illegal gratification and misuse of office.

Chandra’s firm was given the 2G spectrum licence by former telecom minister A Raja despite its ineligibility and that his company was tipped-off about the advancement of cut-off dates for applying for the 2G licence.

The CBI also alleged that after getting the licences, Unitech and co-accused Swan Telecom had sold their equity to foreign companies much before beginning to roll out of their services, thereby making huge profits.

The CBI is also expected to give its reply to a special court in response to the notice on another accused Shahid Balwa’s plea.

Defences by the accused in the Supreme Court was that there is no prima-facie case and no documents to suggest cheating or forgery against them. Even if a prima facie case exists, bail is the rule and denial of it is an exception, the defence had argued.

Accused have no criminal past and had all along cooperated with the CBI during the investigation in the case.

Investigation in the case is over, chargesheets have been filed against the accused and they are no longer needed for further investigation hence they should be released on bail.

The CBI on the other hand says that, the accused are influential persons and if released on bail they could tamper with the evidence and that the offence committed by the accused is very grave.

Wednesday’s order could be sited by other accused in the 2G case to seek bail.