A Delhi court Friday rejected the bail plea of R.K. Chandolia and Shahid Usman Balwa, arrested in the spectrum allocation scam along with former communications minister A. Raja, saying they could tamper with evidence or influence witnesses.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special Judge O.P. Saini said: “Accordingly, I find a merit in the submission of CBI that if these accused are released on bail, they may tamper with evidence or witnesses may not come forward to record their statements. This we can observe from earlier public reaction as no one came forward to complain against their illegal acts.”
The bail pleas were filed Monday.
“There is no doubt that Chandolia is a high ranking public servant and accused Balwa is also an influential businessman. The allegations on the face of it are quite serious and so the deep rooted conspiracy, planning and articulation is in the commission of the offence,” said the court.
The trail of money of Rs.200 crore has also been traced out from the group companies of DB group, owned by Balwa, to Kalaignar TV.
Chandolia is former personal secretary to Raja and Balwa is managing director of private firm DB Realty.
The court remanded the two men, Raja and former telecom secretary Siddarth Behura in judicial custody till March 3.
Balwa was arrested Feb 8 in Mumbai and flown to Delhi on transit remand. He was the fourth person to be arrested in the case.
According to the probe agency, the allocation of spectrum resulted in a loss of Rs.22,000 crore to the exchequer. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has pegged the loss at Rs.1.76 lakh crore.
