'Bail is the rule and jail is exception. The mere apprehension (of CBI) is not good enough as the ground to trample personal liberty of the accused,' former attorney general Soli J Sorabji, appearing for Gautam Doshi of Reliance ADAG, said.
Five corporate honchos today objected to their arrest in 2G spectrum allocation case and told the Delhi high court that "mere apprehension" of fleeing and tampering with the evidence was not a "good enough" ground to "trample" their personal liberty.
"Bail is the rule and jail is exception. The mere apprehension (of CBI) is not good enough as the ground to trample personal liberty of the accused," former attorney general Soli J Sorabji, appearing for Gautam Doshi of Reliance ADAG, said.
Besides Sorabji, a battery of senior defence lawyers, Mukul Rohatgi, KTS Tulsi, Ranjit Kumar, Rajeev Nayar, NK Kaul, assailed the dismissal of the bail plea of the accused by the special CBI judge saying "he gravely erred in terming the case as of the highest magnitude as it is the punishment and not the amount involved that decides the same."
Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd managing director Sanjay Chandra and Group MD of Reliance ADAG Gautam Doshi, co-promoter of Swan Telecom Vinod Goenka and Reliance ADAG's Surender Pipara and Hari Nair, who were not arrested by CBI during the investigation, were sent to jail yesterday.
Consequently, they had during the day immediately moved the high court for grant of bail which listed the matter for hearing today.
Initiating the proceedings which lasted for nearly four hours, Tulsi, appearing for Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, told Justice Ajit Bharihoke that in the charge sheet, there were no specific allegation against his client.
"The special judge had tarred everybody with same brush. There are specific allegations against Swan Telecom like the money trail of around Rs215 crore. So far as I am concerned, there is no specific allegation against me and the Unitech," Tulsi said.
Moreover, Sanjay Chandra was neither a MD nor a director nor a shareholder in the Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd, a company which is an accused in the charge sheet, he said, clarifying that infact, he was the MD of the Unitech Ltd which was not even named as accused.
"His net worth is of Rs5,000 crore and he cannot flee from the country as he has got a fixed abode here," he said.
Tulsi also cited a Delhi high court judgment saying "we are covered by the judgment which says that courts, invariably, grant bail in such cases."
There was no illegality involved if it was alleged that the company was "ineligible" for the grant of UAS Licenses.
Dismissing the bail plea, the special court said "a bare perusal of the facts of the case and the allegations in the chargesheet make it out a case of the highest magnitude and gravity and there is enough incriminating material on record against the accused."
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