Special court to hear Kanimozhi's bail plea today in 2G case

The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court at Patiala House will today hear the bail pleas of Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and six others - Sharad Kumar, RK Chandolia, Rajiv Aggarwal, Asif Balwa, Shahid Balwa, Promoter and Karim Morani in the 2G case.

The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court at Patiala House will on Monday hear the bail pleas of Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and six others - Sharad Kumar, RK Chandolia, Rajiv Aggarwal, Asif Balwa, Shahid Balwa, Promoter and Karim Morani in the 2G case.

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On Saturday, apart from Kanimozhi and Raja, the special court ordered framing of charges against 15 others in the 2G spectrum allocation irregularities. All have been charged under Section 409 of IPC for alleged criminal breach of trust that attracts a maximum punishment of life sentence. The other charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, accepting bribes against most accused fetches them jail term ranging between three years and seven years.

The court in its order said there was evidence that Raja, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura and others conspired to allocate “valuable spectrum”, entrusted to them as public servants, to Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless illegally to cause “wrongful gain to the companies and thereby Section 409 is invoked against them”.

On Kanimozhi, the court found evidence that the Rs 200 crore received by DMK mouthpiece Kalaignar TV was a bribe from the Shahid Balwa-owned DB Realty in return for 2G licence.

Kanimozhi is accused of being the “active brain” behind Kalaignar TV and having been in “regular touch” with Raja.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, the judge framed charges against Balwa, his cousin Asif Balwa, their colleagues Rajeev Agarwal and DB Realty managing director Vinod Goenka.

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair have also been charged. Reliance Telecom said they will go to the Delhi high court. “Framing of charges… is not a finding of guilt by the special court,” it said in a statement.

Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, filmmaker Karim Morani and Raja’s former private secretary R K Chandolia will also face trial.