Five 2G accused execs leave Tihar as SC grants bail

Seven months after they were sent to the Capital?s Tihar Jail over the spectrum scam, five corporate executives won bail from the Supreme Court. All five accused ? Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom director Vinod Goenka and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group executives Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara ? were arrested on April 20, following investigations into the corruption scandal which the country?s top auditor said cost the exchequer presumptive losses of R1.67 lakh crore. The accused had sought bail, saying charges have already been framed and there was no chance of them tampering with evidence.

Investors cheered the bail news, driving up stocks of companies where the executives worked, in a market that saw all-round selling on Wednesday.

As bail conditions, the bench of justices GS Singhvi and HL Dattu ordered the executives to submit two sureties of R5 lakh each, appear in court for all hearings and surrender their passports. The court noted the accused were charged with economic offences of huge magnitude, adding, ?We are also conscious of the fact that the offences alleged, if proved, may jeopardise the economy of the country. At the same time, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the investigating agency has already completed investigation and the charge sheet is already filed before the special judge. Therefore, their presence in the custody may not be necessary for further investigation.?

Legal experts said the Supreme Court order could now be cited as a precedent to press the pending bail petitions of DMK MP Kanimozhi and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura. Several others continue to be in Tihar, including former telecom minister A Raja and his private secretary RK Chandolia, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, directors of Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal and Bollywood producer Karim Morani. Raja is yet to seek bail, while the special court has rejected the bail pleas of some other accused.

Three entities ? Reliance Telecom, Swan Telecom and Unitech (Tamil Nadu) Wireless are also accused in the case. All accused have denied the charges of illegal gratification in the spectrum allocation. Charges were framed under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Writing for the bench, justice Dattu warned the accused not to ?make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts or the case so as to dissuade him to disclose such facts to the court or to any other authority.?

Prior court permission must be taken to remain absent from hearing, and the accused ?shall immediately give intimation to the appropriate court and the superintendent, CBI and request that they may be permitted to be present through the counsel.? The CBI can seek cancellation of bail if the accused misused their liberty, the bench noted.

Opposing the bail pleas, the CBI had said some key witnesses from the corporate world worked directly under the accused, and the possibility of the accused winning them over could not be ruled out.

The five accused had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court and trial court orders rejecting their bail pleas.

While the bail petitions of Kanimozhi and four others are due to come up for hearing before the Delhi High Court on December 1, a few hours after the apex court order, they moved the high court for early hearing of their bail plea.

Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde said the order would definitely impact the cases of other accused. ?There were some accused against which the prosecution did not even oppose the bail. And they continue to remain in jail. In such cases, it is pretty certain that the courts would consider the facts that other accused have got bail,? he said. Wednesday’s order, he said, would be greatly persuasive and help the trial court and the high court in deciding on bail matters. However, he said some of the accused ?who are central to the controversy may not get the benefit. But largely, corporate executives on the periphery of the scam would benefit from the order.?

Raja’s lawyer Sushil Kumar said: ?Other accused should also get bail given that the charges are of conspiracy.?

The court order boosted sentiments in the stocks of the companies to which the accused belong. Against a sharp market selloff, DB Realty, which has lost 45% since the arrest of its MD Goenka closed 20% higher at Rs Rs 64.60. Unitech, which has lost nearly half its value since Chandra’s arrest closed 4.48% up at Rs 23.30, while Reliance Communications, which lost nearly 34% since its executives were arrested closed 0.64%% higher at Rs 70.40, on the BSE, when the benchmark 30-share Sensex fell 2.27% or 365.45 points.

Unitech said it believed that the case against Chandra ?is wrong and (we) have convincingly argued in the trial court against all charges made out against Chandra. Going forward, Chandra?s endeavour will be to prove his innocence in the ongoing trial.? Chandra’s counsel Ram Jethmalani said: ?It has something to do with the correct legal position being actually postulated in the order by the Supreme Court. According to me, the judgment of the courts below showed that the bail jurisprudence had actually been totally distorted out of shape,? he said, adding ?the government has lost its credibility.?

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court put on hold the trial court’s decision to shift the trial in the case from Patiala House courts to the Tihar jail where all the accused are lodged.