New Delhi, May 23: The much-touted defence of five corporate honchos that they deserved bail because CBI did not arrest them during the 2G probe boomeranged as the Delhi High Court rather considered it as a negative factor indicating their clout.
“This circumstance, in itself, gives an insight into the influence wielded by the petitioners during the investigation,” Justice Ajit Bharihoke said while rejecting bail applications of the corporate leaders who are in jail since April 20.
Group MD of Unitech group Sanjay Chandra, co-promoter of Swan Telecom Vinod Goenka, Group MD of Reliance ADAG Gautam Doshi and Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair of Reliance ADAG had submitted that they deserved to be released on bail as they were not arrested by CBI during the probe.
“From the record, it is evident that despite having collected prima facie evidence of involvement of the petitioners in the deep-rooted conspiracy involving corrupt practice by the public servants to cause huge wrongful gains to the favoured companies of the petitioners running into thousands of crores of rupees, neither of the petitioners was arrested by CBI nor were they taken into custody and produced before the court along with the charge sheet...,” Justice Bharihoke said.
Terming the argument as “attractive”, the court said the history of the case cannot be ignored.
It also rejected the plea that the special court should have granted them bail on the ground that they were not arrested during the probe. PTI
