A CBI special court in Delhi on Tuesday granted bail to A. Raja on his furnishing personal and surety bonds of Rs 20 lakh each in connection with the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam.
Special CBI Judge O. P. Saini had on May 11 reserved his order on Raja's bail plea for Tuesday after hearing arguments from the CBI and counsel for the jailed DMK MP.
The CBI, represented by its counsel A. K. Singh, expectedly opposed the plea while, Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Raja, said that they had sought relief on grounds that all the other co-accused in the case had been granted bail.
The DMK MP had filed the bail plea on the ground that he should be treated in parity with the other 13 accused, all of whom have been granted relief by the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and the special court trying the case.
Raja had filed the application soon after former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, who was arrested along with him on February 2 last year, was granted bail by the Supreme Court.
Raja, in his bail plea, had contended that he is ‘innocent’ and the case against him is ‘false and fabricated’.
Besides Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, Behura, Raja's former private secretary R. K. Chandolia , Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Limited MD Sanjay Chandra and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair are facing trial in the case.
Nineteen individuals were accused in the multi- crore scam of which, 14 were arrested. Notably, all except Raja are out on bail.