A Raja's secretary Chandolia gets bail

Former telecom minister A Raja’s personal secretary R K Chandolia could heave a sigh of relief as a special CBI court granted him bail on Thursday. Chandolia has been in jail for the past 10 months and is the twelfth person to get bail in the 2G spectrum scam case. The last person to get bail was Shahid Balwa, managing director of Swan Telecom.

This has left Raja and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura still in jail. The High Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on the bail application of Behura indefinitely. According to legal experts, while Chandolia’s bail is a good sign, it is the order on Behura’s bail plea, which will decide Raja’s next move on the matter of his bail application.

O P Saini, special CBI judge in his order on Thursday stated, “There is no allegation that the accused (Chandolia) himself accepted any bribe. He only faces charges of conspiracy and criminal misconduct. He was only private secretary and did not have any independent powers on his own.”

Saini also distinguished between Chandolia’s case and that of Raja and Behura, saying that his case cannot be equated with these two accused. While acknowledging that further incarceration of Chandolia would not serve any purpose, the judge imposed certain conditions on his bail including furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 3 lakh. The judge also said that he shall not visit the Department of Telecommunications without prior court permission, surrender his passport and not make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case to disclose such facts.

Special public prosecutor U U Lalit had opposed Chandolia’s bail application on the ground that he along with Raja and Behura constitute the core of conspirators and that they are public servants unlike the other private persons who have been granted bail.

“Whatever benefits the private persons obtained flowed due to the misuse of official position by the public servants including Chandolia,” Lalit argued.