2G scam: DB Realty, Unitech, Reliance Comm fall as court rejects bail pleas

A Delhi court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of five corporate honchos including promoter of Etisalat DB, Sanjay Chandra, in connection with the 2G spectrum case.

The order came on the bail applications of Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka, Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra, and three top officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) - Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara. They are likely to be sent to jail.
The five executives, who were named in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet, were not arrested during the probe.

Shares in Unitech, the Indian joint ventures of Norway's Telenor and the UAE's Etisalat, closed 5.13 percent down, DB Realty closed 4.22 percent down and Reliance Communications shares closed down 1.99 percent.

The investigating agency had on April 15 sought the detention of five corporate executives chargesheeted by it for their alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, saying that they might abscond and impede the trial.

The CBI, which opposed their bail pleas, said that some of the key witnesses, belonging to the corporate world, directly worked under them and the possibility of the accused winning them over could not be ruled out.

The investigating agency had earlier issued summons to corporate leaders, who have not been arrested in connection with the scam.

Former Telecom Minister A Raja, former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, Raja''s personal secretary R K Chandolia and Swan Telecom Promoter Shahid Usman Balwa are already in judicial custody and have been supplied with the copy of the chargesheet.

All the accused 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 if the act abetted is committed in consequence, and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Indian Penal Code.

Raja was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet last year after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) faulted him for undervaluing spectrum to favour companies who were largely ineligible for 2G spectrum, and added that the government had probably lost Rs.1.76 lakh crore in estimated revenue.