2G scam: After Behura,will Raja get bail?

Raja,who is in jail since his arrest on February 2 last year,sought bail from Special CBI Judge O P Saini on the ground of parity saying all his co-accused have already secured it.

“The case against the petitioner (Raja) is false and fabricated and not sustainable in law or on facts,” Raja said in his four-page bail plea.

On Raja’s bail plea,the court issued notice to the CBI and sought its reply by May 11.

“Put up for reply and arguments on bail plea for May 11,” the judge said.

Besides Raja,DMK MP Kanimozhi,Behura,Raja’s former private secretary R K Chandolia,corporate honchos — Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group’s MD Gautam Doshi,ADAG group president Surendra Pipara and senior vice president Hari Nair,Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra and Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka — are facing trial in the case.

The court has also put on trial Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar,Director of Cineyug Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd Karim Morani and Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal.

Besides the 14 people,three telecom firms — Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd,Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd,are also facing trial in the case.

Raja and others have been charged for the offences including criminal breach of trust that entails a maximum punishment of life.

Siddharth Behura gets bail

The Supreme Court today gave bail to former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura,arrested last year on February 2 for his alleged role in the 2G case,and also upheld the bail granted to former Telecom Minister A Raja’s ex-Private Secretary R K Chandolia by the trial court.

A Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan upheld the trial court’s order for bail to Chandolia,setting aside a Delhi High Court order,which had stayed grant of bail to him by the trial court suo motu.

The apex court Bench had earlier stayed temporarily the high court’s order,which had put on hold the trial court’s order granting bail to Chandolia.

The Bench granted bail to Behura stipulating that he would furnish a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh and surety of Rs 5 lakh.

With the imminent release of Behura after grant of bail to him,former Telecom Minister A Raja will now be the only accused left in jail in the 2G case as all others,including DMK MP Kanimozhi,have been given bail.

Behura and Chandolia were arrested by CBI along with A Raja on February 2,2011.

Chandolia had approached the apex court against the high court’s suo-motu decision to stay the grant of bail to him by the special court on December 1,2011,saying that the order was “unwarranted and erroneous”.

The high court had taken suo-motu cognisance of the news reports on grant of bail to Chandolia and suspended it,saying that his release would have an impact on Behura’s bail plea,on which the verdict was then reserved. Later,Behura was also denied bail by the high court.

Behura had challenged the high court’s order of December 16,2011,which had denied him the bail on the ground that he was the “perpetrator” of the alleged illegal design of Raja and cannot claim benefit of parity with others released on bail.

The apex court had on December 7,2011 put on hold the high court’s suo-motu decision of staying Chandolia’s bail and had issued notice to the CBI on Behura’s plea on January 2.