Sanjay Chandra:CBI counsel U. U. Lalit had demanded ‘detention’

A special court has denied bail to the five corporate bigwigs, named in the CBI chargesheet for being involved in the 2G spectrum allocation case. All have been remanded to 14-day judicial custody. Incidentally, Swan Telecom director Vinod Goenka, Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra, as well as three top executives of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) – Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara, had not been arrested during the investigation. However, CBI counsel U. U. Lalit had demanded their ‘detention’, saying that they might ‘abscond’ or impede the trial by tampering with evidence.

The defence lawyers of the accused have put in two applications to delay the execution of the judgement by a week. They have argued that since the accused had been appearing in court as well as for investigations whenever they are needed, there is no need to send them to custody.

Earlier, the CBI had filed the charge sheet against the five under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to forgery, cheating, faking documents, giving and accepting illegal gratification for abuse of official position.

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 during the probe and are in Tihar Jail under judicial custody. The CBI has indicted Raja for conspiring with top bureaucrats and corporate bigwigs to cause a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocating the 2G spectrum.