Delhi High Court on Monday described the conspiracy related to the 2G scam as an offence of extreme gravity,and threw out the bail pleas of five corporate honchos,including Unitech group MD Sanjay Chandra and group MD of Reliance ADAG,Gautam Doshi. Justice Ajit Bharihoke also dismissed the bail applications of Swan Telecom co-promoter Vinod Goenka,ADAG group president Surendra Pipara and ADAG senior vice-president Hari Nair. All five executives have been in Tihar jail since April 20,when the trial court denied them bail. The chargesheets disclose complicity of all the petitioners in the offence.,which is of extreme gravity involving thousands of crores of rupees,which itself is sufficient to deny bail. at the initial stage when further investigation is also under progress and the trial is still to commence, Justice Bharihoke said. The court observed that it could not overlook the high positions of the petitioners in society,and that there was a reasonable likelihood that they might influence witnesses if released. Even the CBI,the court noted,had chosen not to arrest them even after they were named in the chargesheet. It is evident that despite having collected prima facie evidence of involvement of petitioners in deep-rooted conspiracy. to cause huge wrongful gains to the favoured companies. running into thousands of crores.,neither of the petitioners were arrested by the CBI nor they were taken into custody and produced before the court along with the chargesheet. This circumstance in itself gives an insight into the influence wielded by the petitioners during investigation, the judge said. The petitioners are aware of the identity of the witnesses and incriminating statements made by them, the judge said; therefore,given the magnitude of the offence and the role played by the petitioners in the scam,there is a reasonable likelihood of the petitioners tampering with the witnesses,particularly when employed in the companies controlled by them. The judge rejected the argument for bail based on the fact that the offence did not carry a life term or the death penalty. To my mind,quantum of sentence alone cannot be yardstick for measuring the gravity of offence. When a loss is caused to the state exchequer,every citizen suffers., he said. CBI questions Khaitan The CBI Monday questioned industrialist I P Khaitan for over eight hours over his alleged interests in Loop Telecom,one of the beneficiaries of the 2G spectrum allocations. The agency said it plans to file a third chargesheet into the scam in June. Officials said Khaitan was questioned over the allegations that Loop Telecom was used as the front for Essar group,which has family links with Khaitan. The agency is looking into the alleged link between Essar and Santa Trading Private Limited,reportedly owned by the Khaitans,which floated Loop Telecom. Morani refused bail A Special CBI court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd director Karim Morani,an accused in the 2G scam,and said coercive process would be applied if he fails to appear on Tuesday. He (Morani) is directed to appear in the court tomorrow at 10 am,failing which coercive process shall be issued, Special CBI Judge O P Saini said.
