Rajathi Ammal, mother of jailed Rajya Sabha DMK MP Kanimozhi, wore a dejected look and was in tears in the open court as Justice Ajit Bharihoke of the Delhi high court on Wednesday rejected her daughter’s bail plea. The court also dismissed the bail plea of Sharad Kumar, the CEO and MD of Kalaignar TV.
“I have nothing to say,” said Ms Ammal when this newspaper wanted a reaction from her.
While dismissing the bail plea of Mr Kumar and Ms Kanimozhi, the court said, “Considering the political and financial clout of the accused, the possibility of them tampering with evidence and influencing witnesses, the magnitude of the offence they’ve been charged with, their bail pleas are dismissed.”
Soon after the court pronounced its order, the lawyers of Ms Kanimozhi and Mr Kumar said, “Both the accused will file a petition in the Supreme Court very soon for obtaining bail.”
In his 37-page order, Justice Bharihoke said that the facts of the case and the circumstances “prima facie show the complicity of the petitioners in the conspiracy and their having received illegal gratification of `200 crores in the account of the company controlled by them, namely M/s Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd.”
The court also said that since both Ms Kanimozhi and Mr Kumar are directly controlling the Kalaignar TV, their ability to influence witnesses who are employees of the TV channel, cannot be ruled out. “They have got strong political connections. Petitioner Kanimozhi belongs to the same political party to which accused A. Raja belongs and the said party is sharing power in the Central government. Thus, considering the financial and political clout of the petitioners, a possibility cannot be ruled out that if the petitioners are freed at this stage, they would interfere with the investigation or try to influence the witnesses. Thus, at this stage, I do not deem it appropriate to admit the petitioners on bail,” the court said in its order.
Taking the CBI allegations into record, the court said that Ms Kanimozhi and Mr Kumar received illegal gratification in the DMK-run TV channel from co-accused and Swan Telecom promoters, Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, from the account of DB Realty group companies as “reward for undue favours” shown by former telecom minister A. Raja in allocation of 2G spectrum licences.