DMK MP Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar on Friday became the first accused in the 2G spectrum case to approach the Supreme Court for bail even as the top court is yet to give its final verdict on the monitoring of the multi-million rupees scam.
Though Ms Kanimozhi’s counsel V.G. Pargasm confirmed the filing of a special leave petition against the Delhi high court’s verdict refusing bail to her and Mr Kumar, their legal team was tightlipped about the grounds raised in the bail petition before the top court takes up the matter on June 13. So far no other accused, including the five corporate honchos whose bail petitions were rejected earlier by the high court, had approached the top court. One of the reasons cited by the counsel close to their legal teams was the monitoring of the case by the top court.
It was reliably learnt that Ms Kanimozhi and Mr Kumar’s lawyers had tried to “differentiate” their case from the other accused who were either representatives of telecom companies or had a direct role in handling of the issue. The main point of distinction between Ms Kanimozhi and Mr Kumar’s case and the other accused cited was that the case against them was based on the allegation of `200 crores of payment to Kalaignar TV by DB Realty, which they claimed was only a “loan” and it had been proved so in the banking transactions, and, therefore, there was noting “illegal” in it.
Kalaignar TV had returned the loan soon after DB Realty owner Shahid Balwa had landed in a controversy as it did not want to bring a bad name to the DMK or any organisation close to it, sources said. But the high court had “failed” to appreciate the evidence to this effect, they claimed.
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Balwa, Goenka fined `15,000
age Correspondent
New Delhi
June 10: Corporate honchos Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, accused in the 2G scam, were fined `15,000 each by a special CBI court on Friday for filing “frivolous” pleas seeking to visit Mumbai on business purpose.
Special CBI judge O.P. Saini said, “The state machinery cannot be made subservient to the money power of the accused persons.”