2G scam: 5 telecom honchos to spend night in 90-sq-ft prison cell

In sharp contrast to the lavish lifestyle of their spacious condominiums, five top honchos of telecom firms will spend their night in a 90 square feet Tihar prison cell after a special CBI court rejected their bail plea in the second-generation mobile telephony spectrum allocation scam.

Swan Telecom director Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd managing director Sanjay Chandra, and three top officials of Reliance ADA Group -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair arrived at the jail this evening at around 6pm.

Sources said that all the honchos underwent medical examination and were sent to jail No 3. However, since the jail is already overcrowded, each the five corporate executives had to share cells with other inmates.

After Special Judge OP Saini rejected the bail pleas of the five corporate honchos and directed that they be sent to judicial custody, they moved the Delhi high court, challenging the trial court's refusal to grant them bail.

The bench decided to take up their appeal against the grant of bail tomorrow.