Five corporate honchos, who have been named in the chargesheet in the 2G spectrum case, today moved bail pleas in a Delhi court which asked the CBI to file its replies.
“The CBI is granted time to file reply and put up the matter for arguments on April 15,” Special CBI Judge, Mr O.P. Saini, said.
Top corporate executives — Swan Telecom Director, Mr Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd Managing Director, Mr Sanjay Chandra, and three top officials of Reliance ADA Group, Mr Gautam Doshi, Mr Surrendra Pipara and Mr Hari Nair — appeared before the special court for the first time and sought bail on the ground that they were not arrested during the investigation.
“The accused are entitled for relief on bail,” senior advocate Mr Mukul Rohatagi, appearing for Mr Vinod Goenka, said.
Similar pleas were advanced by lawyers for other corporate honchos.
Senior advocate, Mr U.U. Lalit, who has been appointed as Special Public Prosecutor by the Supreme Court, vehemently opposed the applications, saying, “Accused are not entitled for release on bail ipso facto (by default) on appearance before the court. They will have to justify their bail pleas.”
Citing legal provisions relating to the bail, Mr Lalit said, “The suspects have now become accused after the filing of the charge sheet. Now it is between them and the court. The accused will have to justify their release on bail.”