Mittal, Ruia give personal bonds

Former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh moves bail application

Bharti Airtel CMD Sunil Mittal and Essar Group Promoter Ravikant Ruia today filed personal bonds in a special court for appearing at the next hearing in a case related to additional allocation of spectrum in 2002.

The court adjourned the matter till April 22.

Former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh, named an accused in the case by CBI, filed a bail petition in the court. The special court would take up the matter on April 22.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court had directed Mittal and Ruia to “appear before the trial court and give a personal bond for their appearance at the next hearing”. Both had filed petitions in the apex court against summons issued by the special court in connection with the allocation of 2G spectrum. The Supreme Court had adjourned the hearing on the matter till April 18.

CBI had sought the case be transferred to a bench headed by G S Singhvi; the matter would be taken up on Thursday.

The personal bonds given by both parties today do not involve cash guarantees. Senior lawyers said these were undertakings “to show respect for law” and assure the court Mittal and Ruia would be present for the next hearing. No plea for exemption from coming to the court was filed by either person.

Mittal and Ruia were present in the court on April 11, adhering to the summons issued by special CBI judge O P Saini.

While CBI hadn’t named any private individual in its first information report, the special CBI court named Mittal, Ruia and Hutchison Max’s Asim Ghosh as accused, saying they were “alter egos” of their respective companies. CBI had alleged Ghosh, in conspiracy with former telecom minister Pramod Mahajan, had abused his position as a public person and granted undue favours to beneficiary companies, leading to a loss of Rs 846.44 crore to the exchequer.