2G case: HC to decide bail plea of corporate honchos

New Delhi, May 22 (PTI) The Delhi High Court is likely
to pronounce on Monday its order on the bail plea of five
corporate honchos, including Unitech promoter Sanjay Chandra
and Reliance ADAG MD Gautam Doshi, in the 2G spectrum
allocation scam.
The corporate accused, also including D B Realty
promoter Vinod Goenka and Reliance officials Hari Nair and
Surendra Pipara, are in jail since April 20 when the special
court ordered their arrest after dismissing their bail plea.
Justice Ajit Bharihoke, after hearing extensive
arguments, reserved its orders on May 9 on the bail plea of
the five accused who had challenged the order of the special
court designated to deal exclusively with the 2G case.
During the arguments, former Attorney General Soli J
Sorabji, appearing for Doshi, said the roles of Reliance
officials' were minimal and limited to "structuring" an
alleged front company, Swan Telecom.
"Bail is the rule and jail is exception. The mere
apprehension (of CBI) is not good enough as the ground to
trample personal liberty of the accused," Sorabji had said.
Besides Sorabji, senior defence lawyers Mukul Rohatgi,
Ram Jethmalani, K T S Tulsi, Ranjit Kumar, Rajeev Nayar, N K
Kaul had assailed the dismissal of the bail plea of the
accused by the special CBI judge saying "he gravely erred in
terming the case as of the highest magnitude as it is the
punishment and not the amount involved that decides the same."
Jethmalani, who appeared for Unitech Wireless (Tamil
Nadu) Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, said his client
did not make the "kill" but was "killed".
Chandra did not offloaded the company's shares and did
not earn profits but has been wrongly booked in the case, he
contended.
The corporate leaders, who were not arrested by CBI
during the investigation, were named in the first charge sheet
and had appeared before the lower court on April 13.
U U Lalit, the Supreme Court-appointed CBI prosecutor,
opposed the bail plea saying the corporate bodies and
individuals were direct beneficiaries of the spectrum deal and
they were involved in a conspiracy along with former Telecom
minister A Raja to obtain benefits.
Raja advanced the cut-off date for submitting
applications for spectrum allocation and also altered the
policy to favour Swan Telecom and Unitech Ltd, Lalit said.
Besides the five corporate leaders, CBI has named nine
persons including Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi and three
companies as accused in the case.