By IANS,
New Delhi : A day after her father M. Karunanidhi’s DMK lost power in Tamil Nadu, a court here will pronounce its verdict Saturday on the bail plea of Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a co-accused in the 2G spectrum case.
Special judge O.P. Saini will also rule on the bail plea of Kalaignar TV chief Sharad Kumar, named along with Kanimozhi as a co-accused in the second chargesheet filed by the investigative agency in the case.
Saini had May 6 reserved his order on their bail application, saying: “The case will be taken up May 14.”
With the scam battering the DMK’s image the party and its allies could get a mere 36 seats in Tamil Nadu’s 234-member assembly, with its arch rival AIADMK sweeping to power with 196 seats.
The DMK’s A. Raja, who quit as communications minister after the scam broke last year, for his alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008, is already in jail.
Apart from Raja, the CBI has also chargesheeted his aide R.K. Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa for conspiring to sell the 2G spectrum waves to select companies at rock bottom prices.
Later, the probe agency also named Kanimozhi, Sharad Kumar, Cineyug Film’s Karim Morani, Asif Balwa and Rajiv as co-conspirators in the case. Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal was listed as a witness.
Morani is the only one who has been exempted from personal appearance due to ill health. However, he has been directed to appear on May 18.
Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom, Sanjay Chandra of Unitech and three officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group – Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara – were also named in the chargesheet.
Apart from Raja, Chandolia, Behura, Shahid Balwa, Asif Balwa, Agarwal, Goenka, Chandra, Doshi, Nair and Pipara are in judicial custody.
Meanwhile the court will continue the arguments on the bail plea of Asif Balwa and Rajiv B. Agarwal of Kusegaon Realty on May 18.