2G scam: Bail denied, 5 corporate honchos face jail

Court rejects bail pleas; Reliance, Unitech and DB Group executives are being sent to judicial custody

New Delhi: A special city court Wednesday denied bail to five corporate executives named as co-accused in the case involving the award of second generation (2G) telecom spectrum during the tenure of former communications minister A. Raja. All the five have been sent to judicial custody.
Judge O.P. Saini dismissed the bail pleas of Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra and three officials of Reliance Anil Dhirubhani Ambani Group -- Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had named them co-accused along with Raja, his personal assistant R.K. Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa.
These four are already in judicial custody. The five were not arrested during the probe into the case.
The court did not allow the bail plea of ailing Surendra Pipara even though Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit had not opposed his application.

The court asked the corporate honchos to remain present during the proceedings today.
The judge had reserved his order Friday after hearing the arguments of all sides, including that of Supreme Court appointed prosecutor U.U. Lalit who appeared for the premier investigative agency and opposed the bail pleas.
The CBI has opposed the bail of all the five accused who are not in custody, including Reliance executives.
The defence lawyers of the accused argued that since the CBI didn't feel the need to arrest them during the investigations, they shouldn't be taken into custody even now.
However, the CBI counsel argued that they could tamper with evidence.