2G scam: Morani denied bail, Vinod Rai appears before JPC
New Delhi: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court Monday dismissed 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: "Accused Karim Morani's bail is dismissed. He should be taken into custody." Morani was earlier exempted from personal appearance in the court due to his ill-health. He first appeared in the court May 24, a day after his anticipatory bail plea was dismissed.
The CBI named Morani a co-conspirator in a charge sheet after it traced an illegal money trail of Rs.214 crore in the scam. Meanwhile, a Delhi High Court reserved its order on the bail plea of DMK MP Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, accused in the 2G scam.
CAG Vinod Rai appears before JPC
Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Monday appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the 2G spectrum scam to explain how the government auditor quantified the losses in the spectrum allocation at Rs. 1.76 lakh crore.
Rai was asked to brief the Committee, chaired by Congress leader P. C. Chacko, on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum from 1998 to 2009. The CAG, in a report to Parliament last year, had pegged the presumptive loss to the exchequer on 2G spectrum allocation at Rs. 1.76 lakh crore.
2G scam: Morani denied bail, Vinod Rai appears before JPC
The findings triggered a political storm and subsequent events led to the resignation of the then Telecom Minister A. Raja. "Today the talk is of a Rs. 1.76 lakh crore scam. We want to know from the horse's mouth how he had arrived at the figure," Chacko said after the last meeting of the committee on May 18.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had dubbed "utterly erroneous and without any basis" the estimated loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore, arrived at by the CAG on account of 2G spectrum allocation.
According to the CBI charge sheet in the 2G spectrum allocation case, the loss to the exchequer is pegged at Rs. 30,984 crore.
Earlier this year, Rai had made a similar presentation before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on how he arrived at the figure. PAC examines the CAG reports and tables its findings to Parliament.
Source: PTI & IANS