By IANS,
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday opposed the bail plea of former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam along with former communications minister Andimuthu Raja, before a special Delhi court.
CBI prosecutor A.K. Singh opposed Behura’s plea saying that instead of following the government’s policy, he had followed the “policy of Raja”.
Behura was working on Raja`s direction. He never opposed his ideas even though he knew that it was a wrong policy, the CBI submitted before CBI Special Judge O.P. Saini.
“Behura did not put any checks and balances (to prevent) Raja’s ‘misdeeds’ during the grant of (telecom) licences despite having the highest executive power in the department of telecommunications,” CBI counsel said.
“Behura played an active role in giving licences to Swan Telecom, promoted by Shahid Usman Balwa, despite objections,” the CBI said.
The court reserved till May 30 its order on the bail plea of Cineyug Films’ founder Karim Morani, named as a co-conspirator in the 2G scam.
Judge Saini said: “Order on the bail application of the accused (Morani) is reserved for Monday.”
Morani, who first appeared in the court May 24, had been getting exemption from personal appearance on grounds of ill health. His anticipatory bail plea was dismissed Monday.
The CBI’s first charge sheet April 2 had named, besides Raja, 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 charge sheet, the CBI named DMK MP Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV chief Sharad Kumar as co-conspirators after it traced an illegal money trail of Rs.214 crore in the scam.
The supplementary charge sheet also named Morani, Asif Balwa and Rajiv B. Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt. Ltd.
Except for Morani and Pipara, who is in judicial custody at a hospital here, all those named in the CBI charge sheets are lodged in Tihar Jail.