Noting that there is incriminating evidence against the accused which I have not deliberately discussed,a special CBI court judge on Wednesday sent five top corporate executives named in the CBI chargesheet in the 2G scam to Tihar Jail,rejecting their bail pleas. There are serious allegations. there is incriminating evidence which I have not deliberately discussed at this stage. The CBI has also expressed its apprehension that the accused may temper with the evidence,also flee from justice. These apprehensions cannot be dismissed as too far-fetched in the light of serious nature of the case. it is not a fit case for bail, ruled Additional Sessions Judge O P Saini in his 42-page order. The special court dismissed the interim bail applications of Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka,Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra,Group Managing Director Reliance ADAG Gautam Doshi,and Senior Vice-Presidents of ADAG Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair. When the five immediately filed a petition seeking a stay on the implementation of the order for a week to make arrangements for their business responsibilites,the judge dismissed this application too. The five accused later approached the Delhi High Court,challenging Judge Sainis order refusing them bail. The appeal will be heard tomorrow. In more bad news for Chandra,Telenor Group,which holds 67.25 per cent ownership in Unitech,said that earlier this month it had asked him to step down as MD and appoint a substitute. Four other accused in the case,former telecom minister A Raja,DB Realty Director Shahid Usman Balwa and bureaucrats R K Chandolia and Siddharth Behura are already in jail for awarding Unified Access Licences in 2008 at 2001 prices,favouring certain companies and denying others. The accused are charged under various provisions of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act,for criminal conspiracy,forgery and misuse of official position. The court observed that Doshi,Nair and Pipara had helped Swan Telecom operate as a front company of ADAG,and intentionally aided Balwa and Goenka to get UAS licences for Swan Telecom despite full knowledge that the company was ineligible on the date of filing (of) application. (the trio) created net worth of Swan Telecom out of funds arranged from Reliance Telecom or its associates for applying to the licences in 13 circles where Reliance Telecom had no GSM spectrum,in a manner that its association with Reliance may not be detected, the order said. About the role of Unitech MD,Judge Saini said: Chandra entered into a criminal conspiracy with Raja,Chandolia and other accused during September 2009 to get licences. the Unitech companies got benefit of spectrum in 10 circles over other eligible companies. Chandra was aware of the whole design of the allocation of LoIs (letters of intent) and was ready with drafts of Rs 1658 crore as early as on 10 October 2007, read the order. The LoIs were issued exactly three months later,on January 10,2008. Pointing to the seriousness of the offence,the court also dismissed the submission of defence counsel that since the accused were not arrested during the investigation and have been appearing for each hearing,they should be released on bail. In a case of this magnitude,non-arrest of the accused by the police is of no consequence and bail is to be considered as per the facts and circumstances of the case, said Saini. Piparas plea seeking bail on health grounds was also dismissed. Regarding defence contention of stay on order for a week to allow time to the accused to manage their pending works and then surrender,CBI Special Prosecutor A K Singh said: After rejection of bail application,plea of stay on order is not justified. They should be first sent to judicial custody and then they can file a fresh bail petition. Subsequently,senior advocates K T S Tulsi and N K Kaul moved the HC against the CBI court order. The CBI is likely to file a supplementary chargesheet on April 25.
