Bail rare in big cases,some exceptions

Jail and no bail appears to be the rule for investigating agencies and trial courts in hi-profile cases.

Defence lawyers have repeatedly argued that the principle introduced by former Supreme Court judge V Krishna Iyer in the 1970s bail is the norm,jail is the exception should be closely adhered to by courts,especially in financial fraud cases,for the simple reason that in such cases evidence is largely documentary.

The practice,however,is usually the opposite. The custody of accused persons involved in financial fraud cases is extended from time to time citing grounds like ongoing investigation.

Desperate times call for desperate arguments. So in the 2G scam,senior advocate Ram Jethmalani requested Special Judge OP Saini to tap his Victorian sense of chivalry to grant DMK MP Kanimozhi bail.

Senior advocate K T S Tulsi,one of the lawyers who fought the bail applications for Swan Telecom director Vinod Goenka,Unitech Wireless Tamil Nadu Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra and three Reliance ADAG officials Gautam Doshi,Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair in the Delhi High Court,says bail continues to be a forbidden word.

You see,courts and investigators see only 5 or 6 per cent conviction,94 per cent go scot-free. So the frustration of the system is shown on the accused through pre-trial detention. The system says we cant convict you,so we will punish you. The only condition for bail is that the accused should be here to stand trial,nothing more, said Tulsi.

His colleague in the same case,former attorney general Soli Sorabjee,had made a strong plea for the corporate executives when he pointed out that bail is the rule and jail is an exception. The mere apprehension of the CBI is not good enough to trample the personal liberty of the accused.

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But CBI Special Prosecutor U U Lalit is against the grant of bail,and says the 2G case shows how the financial health of the country was completely bartered.

In other cases,investigating agencies end up being unable to file a chargesheet at the end of a long period of incarceration for the accused. In the CWG case,OC officials T S Darbari and Sanjay Mohindroo spent 60 days in jail to find that the CBI had failed to patch together a chargesheet.

In the NHAI case,the then chief general manager S K Nirmal and general manager Nitin Jain got bail after the CBI could not to file a chargesheet within the stipulated 60 days.

However,recently,Sumit Walia,alleged kingpin of the Rs 500-crore car import racket,got bail from a Delhi court against a bond of Rs 2 lakh. DRI had arrested Walia after a monthlong investigation during which 40 illegally imported cars were seized. Walia had been arrested on an earlier occasion for a similar offence.

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On August 18,the Andhra Pradesh High Court granted bail to the former chief of Satyam,Ramalinga Raju,despite opposition from the CBI. The agency also raised the issue with the Supreme Court,but Raju remains a free man. He was granted bail on condition that he cannot travel outside India without permission,and that he cannot carry out large monetary transactions without informing the court or CBI.