Bail pleas of Kanimozhi, 7 others dismissed

A Delhi court on Thursday dismissed the bail plea of DMK MP Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

The bail pleas of ex-telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, A Raja's former private secretary R K Chandolia and 5 others were also dismissed by the Delhi court.

The court will begin trial of the 2G case from November 11.

The court said by no stretch of imagination Kanimozhi can be said to be suffering from any discrimination on ground of being a woman. The court also said charges levelled against the accused are very serious in nature, having grave implications for the economy.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini had on September 24 reserved the order on the bail pleas of Kanimozhi, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, former telecom minister A Raja's ex-private secretary R K Chandolia, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, Directors of Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal and Bollywood producer Karim Morani.

Besides them, the court had yesterday reserved its order on the bail plea of former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura.

The CBI had preferred not to oppose the bail pleas of Kanimozhi and four others during the arguments on the ground that they faced specific charges, apart from the "umbrella section" of 120-B (criminal conspiracy) IPC, which entail five years sentence as maximum punishment.

The agency has also slapped charges of criminal breach of trust under section 409 of the IPC which carries life term as maximum punishment, against Kanimozhi and four others.

The agency, however, had opposed the bail pleas of Shahid Balwa, Chandolia and Behura.

Regarding Shahid Balwa and Chandolia, special public prosecutor U U Lalit had told the court that they should be denied bail as maximum punishment for the specific charges levelled against them was seven years.