2G spectrum scam case: Court to decide Chandra, Goenka fate tomorrow

NEW DELHI: The owners of two of India’s largest listed real estate companies and three officials of billionaire Anil Ambani’s group have an anxious 48 hours ahead of them. On Friday, a Delhi court will decide if the five executives, against whom charges have been filed in the 2G spectrum scam but have not been arrested, need to be remanded to custody or be granted bail.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, on Wednesday opposed the bail applications of the five officials—Vinod Goenka, a director of Swan Telecom; Sanjay Chandra, managing director, Unitech Wireless; and Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair of Reliance ADAG. Special Public Prosecutor UU Lalit said the CBI had made out a case against these executives and the gravity of their offence was such that they did not deserve bail.

Goenka and Chandra were in court because of the alleged misdeed of telecom companies with which they are associated. But they are better known for their stewardship of DB Realty and Unitech, prominent real estate companies. On
Wednesday, the markets seemed to have taken their court appearance in stride. The DB realty scrip was up 0.7% at Rs 115 while Unitech rose 1.1% to Rs 45. Both lagged the wider BSE index that rose 2%.

On Wednesday, the CBI opposed their bail petitions on the ground the release of these executives will compromise the ‘safety’ of the witnesses, whose names have been made public.

Heated arguments in Supreme Court

"There are nearly 180 prosecution witnesses and some of them are under political perception of threat," Lalit, the Supreme Court-appointed lawyer representing the agency, said. He presented classified documents to the judge to justify his stance, but did not divulge details. "The fact that they were not arrested during the investigation does not entitle them to be released on bail. They have to justify their release on bail as they have now been charged as co-accused," Lalit added.

His arguments were vehemently opposed by a battery of lawyers representing the accused, whose ranks include some of the country's top legal eagles such as Mukul Rohatgi, KTS Tulsi and Ranjit Kumar. They argued it was the CBI that should justify the arrests at this late stage, especially since the accused had not been taken into custody during the probe and had co-operated with the investigating agencies.

The defence lawyers accused the CBI on resorting to pressure tactics.

Special Judge OP Sani agreed to the public prosecutor's request that the matter be heard again on April 15 and said status quo be maintained till this date. The judge also asked all the accused to be present on that date.

On April 2, the CBI filed an 80,000-page charge sheet against nine individuals-four of whom were already in jail-and three companies in the mobile licence and spectrum allotment case. The companies are Swan Telecom, Unitech Wireless and Reliance Telecom.

The four accused currently in judicial custody-former telecom minister A Raja, his personal aide RK Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa-were also produced in the CBI special court on Wednesday.

All the nine have been booked under Sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 109 (abetment).

They face a maximum of seven years in jail if convicted. Essentially, Raja and the telecom officials are accused of conspiring with the corporate executives to grant licences and airwaves to companies that the CBI claims were ineligible. The companies in the dock include Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless, now known as Uninor. Reliance Telecom has been implicated because it allegedly controlled Swan Telecom at the time the latter had applied for licences.

All the accused-the minister, the officials and the company executives and the companies-have denied any wrong-doing. Raja resigned from the cabinet in November 2010, after the national auditor in its report said he had flouted almost every rule in the book, ignored advice from the prime minister down, and indulged in blatant favouritism while awarding mobile licences to mostly undeserving companies, causing a loss of up to Rs 177,000 crore to the government.