By IANS,
New Delhi: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here Thursday reserved till May 30 its order on the bail plea of Cineyug Films’ founder Karim Morani, named as a co-conspirator in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
CBI special Judge O.P Saini said: “Order on the bail application of the accused (Morani) is reserved for Monday.”
Morani, who first appeared in the court on May 24, has been getting exemption from personal appearance on ground of ill health. His anticipatory bail plea had been dismissed by the special court on Monday.
The court had then asked Morani to either appear or get ready to face coercive measures. The film producer appeared the next day and moved a regular bail application.
In his arguments before the court, defence counsel Siddharth Luthra said Morani, 52, had been suffering from various ailments for the last 31 years.
Luthra said Morani had undergone angioplasty in 1991, 1993 and 1997, and had an open heart surgery in 2007.
He also said that Morani had received a sixth bypass graft and required re-boring of his two major vessels. He had also been advised complete rest due to chest pain.
“There is every likelihood of tampering with prosecution evidence and winning over of witnesses. It is also apprehended that he may abscond to avoid the trial proceedings,” said the CBI Public Prosecutor A.K. Singh.
The CBI’s first chargesheet April 2 had named, besides former communications minister A. Raja, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, Raja’s aide R.K. Chandolia, Swan Telecom’s Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless’s Sanjay Chandra and three executives of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group – Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.
In its April 25 supplementary chargesheet, the CBI named DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV managing director Sharad Kumar as co-conspirators after it traced an illegal money trail of Rs.214 crore in the scam.
The supplementary chargesheet also named Karim Morani as well as Asif Balwa and Rajiv B. Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd.
The probe agency claims it has unearthed an illegal money trail that moved from Dynamix to Kusegaon and then on to Cineyug, all part of the DB Group, that promoted Swan Telecom, ending with Kalaignar TV, majority-owned by Karunanidhi’s family.
Except for Morani and Pipara, who is in judicial custody at AIIMS here, all those named in the CBI chargesheets are lodged in Tihar Jail.