Special judge OP Saini said he was satisfied that “no case for bail is made out for any of the accused”.
A CBI special court on Thursday dismissed the bail pleas of Kanimozhi and seven others, accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, saying the charges levelled against them were of “grave nature”.
Special judge OP Saini said he was satisfied that “no case for bail is made out for any of the accused”.
Though the CBI did not object to the DMK Rajya Sabha MP’s bail plea, the court said its concession was of “no consequence in the eyes of law”. “An economic offence is committed with cool calculation and deliberate design with an eye on personal profit regardless of the consequence.”
The CBI’s stand and the recent meetings of her father DMK chief M Karunanidhi with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and prime minister Manmohan Singh had raised Kanimozhi’s hopes for bail. But once it was clear that she would not get bail, Kanimozhi broke down and hugged her mother Rajathi Ammal.
Apart from her husband Aravindan, son Aditya and mother, DMK leaders TR Baalu, TKS Elangovan, Durai Murugan, Vasanthi Stalin, actress Khushboo were present in court.
Seeing a swarm of journalists, Kanimozhi, who is normally composed, lost her cool. “Are you not human beings?” she asked. “Why are you people standing here? Please leave.”
Kanimozhi’s counsel Ram Jethmalani termed the denial of bail “serious miscarriage of justice”. “I believe this judge seems to have decided that no relief should be given except by the Supreme Court. I consider it grave, grave miscarriage of justice and a deliberate misapplication of law; I hope the Supreme Court soon puts this right.”
Bail can be denied only if a person is likely to abscond to tamper with evidence but “there is no such evidence at least in the case of this woman [Kanimozhi]”, Jethmalani said.
The Congress came out with a guarded response. Party spokesperson Manish Tewari said the “flow of jurisprudence has been that bail and not jail should be the guiding principle”. He said there have been cases where higher courts have come to conclusions that are entirely different from the findings of a subordinate court.
Apart from Kanimozhi, the court rejected the bail pleas of former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, former telecom minister A Raja’s personal secretary RK Chandolia, Swan Telecom director Shahid Usman Balwa, Kalaignar TV promoter and director Sharad Kumar, directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajiv B Agarwal, and director of Cineyug Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd Karim Morani.
Dismissing Morani’s bail plea, the judge said his illness was “not so high” that he had to be released on bail.
All the eight accused will move the Delhi high court against the special court’s order. The trial will start on November 11.
(With Agency inputs)
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