The special court headed by Additional Sessions Judge O P Saini dismissed the interim bail applications of the five in which they had sought protection from arrest for the next seven days on grounds that they had to make arrangements to manage their business responsibilities in their absence.
The court had on April 15 reserved its order on the bail applications of Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, and three top officials of Reliance ADA Group — Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair.
The five top executives then moved an application seeking interim bail for one week so that they could move High Court against today’s order, but the court rejected that plea too.
CBI counsel AK Singh said, “The judge officially rejected the bail application of five persons…Now they are being taken to judicial custody after their interim bail application was rejected as well…they will be in judicial custody till the granting of bail order by any superior court.”
The court concurred with the CBI which apprehended that the accused may tamper with the evidence by trying to win over witnesses and they may also flee from justice in view of the magnitude of the offence.
Opposing the bail plea last Friday, special prosecutor U U Lalit, appearing for the CBI, had also said that the five accused could abscond hampering the smooth functioning of the case.
Counsel for the accused had argued that their clients had not been arrested yet, that they had co-operated with the investigation and would comply with all bail conditions. The judge had reserved order last Friday.
Former telecom minister A Raja, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, Raja’s personal secretary R. K. Chandolia and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa were arrested earlier during investigation in the case and are lodged in Tihar Jail under judicial custody.
The CBI has indicted Raja for conspiring with top bureaucrats, including a retired IAS officer, and corporate honchos to cause a loss of Rs. 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of the 2G spectrum.
CBI charges
Sanjay Chandra the MD of Unitech Wireless and Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom are accused of conspiring with former Telecom Minister A Raja to get licenses and spectrum for mobile networks at throwaway prices.
Chandra has been chargesheeted for cheating and conspiracy. The CBI believes that he came up with a plan which centred on Raja abruptly advancing the deadlines for applications for licenses by a week. Companies like Unitech allegedly benefited from this and jumped to the head of the queue.
The Telenor Group, which holds a 67.25 per cent ownership share in Unitech Wireless, has asked Sanjay Chandra to step down as the company’s chairman.