The special CBI court hearing the 2G spectrum case on Thursday granted bail to R K Chandolia,thus rejecting the prosecutions contention that along with A Raja and Siddhartha Behura,he was at the core of the conspiracy and therefore should not be released. Instead Special Judge O P Saini said Chandolia,a 1984-batch Indian Economic Service officer who was personal secretary to former telecom minister A Raja,was only a private secretary while Raja and Behura were in decision-making positions. As such,with due respect,his case cannot be equated with these two accused, observed the court. Chandolias release comes a day ahead of him completing 10 months in custody: he was arrested along with Raja and Behura on February 2. With Chandolias release,Raja and Behura are the last of 17 (three being companies) accused in the case who remain in Tihar Jail. He has been released with specific instructions not to visit the Department of Telecommunications without prior permission of the court. In a separate development,the Delhi High Court on Thursday finished hearing the arguments on the bail application of former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura and reserved its order. Judge Saini applied the principle of parity used by the High Court to grant bail to five accused,and used by Saini himself to release Shahid Balwa to Chandolia too,saying his co-accused had already been released on bail. There are no allegations that the applicant/accused himself accepted any bribe.. Moreover,charges have been framed against the accused only for conspiracy and criminal misconduct, noted the court. Chandolia was released on a personal bond of Rs 3 lakh,with two sureties of the same amount. The 11 other accused who were released on bail had to submit bail bonds worth Rs 5 lakh each. All the conditions of Chandolias bail,except the one restricting visits to the Telecom Department,are the same as imposed by the Supreme Court while releasing five accused on bail on November 23. In the High Court,arguments on the bail plea of Siddhartha Behura were concluded amid the CBIs opposition to his release. The CBI said if the HC accepted Behuras application for bail on grounds of parity and released him on bail,it would open the doors for Rajas application. I will still submit that the role of public servants in the case of such an enormous magnitude be considered differently. If accused (Behura) is granted bail then other public servants (Raja) can also seek bail on grounds of parity, additional solicitor general Mohan Parasaran,appearing for CBI,told a bench of Justice V K Shali. (With inputs from PTI)
