2G accused invoke illness, debt, fatherly duties to plead for bail

For certain things, one needs to be out of jail. One of the accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case said in his bail application he could repay company debt only if he was released. Another said he had daughters of marriageable age. A third accused told the court his wife was severely ill, and yet another pleaded for bail by invoking his own illness.

While Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi's plea sought sympathetic consideration as she was a woman, the other seven accused whose bail applications were rejected on Thursday also cited various personal reasons, the court order showed.

There are 14 individuals accused in the case. The trial court at Patiala House gave its verdict on eight of the accused on Thursday and the Supreme Court has reserved its order for another five of them. The prime accused A Raja, former telecom minister, is yet to apply for bail.

DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa’s counsel argued his client had obtained loans of more than Rs 2,000 crore from various institutions. It was necessary to be out on bail to service the loans, said the counsel.

For Asif Balwa and Rajeev Aggarwal, directors at Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables, the plea was that both had minor children and had to look after their families. The lawyer of Karim Morani, MD, Cineyug Enterprises, and a film-maker, submitted the accused had suffered two heart attacks and his “health was deteriorating with each passing day”.

Kanimozhi’s lawyer cited a legal proviso that confers discretion on the court to grant bail to a woman accused. The counsel for Siddharth Behura, former DoT secretary, stated the accused was the oldest of them all in the case. It was pointed out Behura’s wife was suffering from cancer and “these personal circumstances of the accused may be considered”.

For R K Chandolia, former personal secretary to Raja, the counsel petitioned “he has two daughters of marriageable age”. The lawyer stated Chandolia’s provident fund, gratuity and other pensionary benefits were with the government and “as such there was no question of his running away”.

O P Saini, the judge at the special court, referred to several previous judgements to conclude there was no merit for granting bail in these cases. One of the earlier judgements he based his order on spoke of an “economic offence having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds…” He also referred to a previous order that mentioned “grave offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby posing a serious threat to the financial health of our country”.