5 corporate honchos seek bail in High Court in 2G case

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The five corporate honchos arrested in 2G spectrum allocation case will have to remain in jail till at least April 26 when the Delhi High Court will resume hearing today's inconclusive arguments in connection with their bail pleas.

During the arguments on their bail petitions that lasted for nearly four hours, the honchos objected to their arrest yesterday and told Justice Ajit Bharihoke that 'mere apprehension' of fleeing and tampering with the evidence was not a 'good enough' ground to 'trample' their personal liberty.

Justice Bharihoke, who would now hear remaining arguments on April 26 on behalf of CBI, also asked the defence counsels to provide their main points in writing.

Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra and Group MD of Reliance ADAG Gautam Doshi, co-promoter of Swan Telecom Vinod Goenka and Reliance ADAG's Surender Pipara and Hari Nair, who were not arrested by CBI during the investigation, were sent to Tihar jail yesterday.

In contrast to their corporate, seven-star lifestyle, the five top telecom honchos spent the night in a crowded 90 square feet prison cell that they shared with other inmates.

"They had the usual prison food for lunch and dinner - dal, roti, sabzi and chawal - and after that they were sent to their respective cells. They share cells with other inmates as the jail is already overcrowded. They slept on the floor as their co-inmates do," a jail official claimed.

Jail sources said the five did not speak to anyone and remained confined to themselves.

"They looked very sad. It seems they felt really bad being here," a source said.

Consequently, they had during the day immediately moved the High Court for grant of bail which listed the matter for hearing today.

"Bail is the rule and jail is exception. The mere apprehension (of CBI) is not good enough as the ground to trample personal liberty of the accused," Former Attorney General Soli J. Sorabji, appearing for Gautam Doshi of Reliance ADAG, said.

Besides Sorabji, a battery of senior defence lawyers, Mukul Rohatgi, K T S Tulsi, Ranjit Kumar, Rajeev Nayar, N K Kaul, assailed the dismissal of the bail plea of the accused by the special CBI judge saying "he gravely erred in terming the case as of the highest magnitude as it is the punishment and not the amount involved that decides the same."

Initiating the proceedings, Tulsi, appearing for Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, told Justice Ajit Bharihoke that in the chargesheet, there were no specific allegation against his client.

"The Special Judge had tarred everybody with same brush. There are specific allegations against Swan Telecom like the money trail of around Rs 215 crore. So far as I am concerned, there is no specific allegation against me and the Unitech," Tulsi said.

Moreover, Sanjay Chandra was neither a MD nor a Director nor a shareholder in the Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd, a company which is an accused in the chargesheet, he said, clarifying that infact, he was the MD of the Unitech Ltd which was not even named as accused.

"His net worth is of Rs 5,000 crore and he cannot flee from the country as he has got a fixed abode here," he said.

Tulsi also cited a Delhi High Court judgement saying 'we are covered by the judgement which says that courts, invariably, grant bail in such cases'.

There was no illegality involved if it was alleged that the company was 'ineligible' for the grant of UAS Licenses.

Dismissing the bail plea, the special court said 'a bare perusal of the facts of the case and the allegations in the chargesheet make it out a case of the highest magnitude and gravity and there is enough incriminating material on record against the accused'.