We did not oppose Kanimozhi’s bail: CBI

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Even as the Supreme Court Tuesday reserved orders on the bail pleas of five top corporate honchos in the 2G spectrum scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it did not oppose the bail petitions of DMK MP Kanimozhi and four others earlier before the trial court.

 Appearing for CBI, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Harin Raval told Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice H.L. Dattu that the concession given to Kanimozhi and four others was not available to other accused.

 The investigating agency opposed the bail plea of former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura even though he sought the same concession, the ASG said.

 Special public prosecutor U.U. Lalit told the CBI special court Judge O.P. Saini that it should decide the bail plea of Kanimozhi and four others independent of the fact that it was not opposed by the investigating agency, Raval told the supreme court.

 The four others are the promoters of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajeev B. Agarwal, Cineyug Film’s Karim Morani and Kalaignar TV’s Managing Director Sharad Kumar.

 Raval said this in response to the court’s query Monday, seeking to know if the CBI had not opposed the bail plea of Kanimozhi and four others before Judge Saini Oct 24.

The court made its query in the wake of a statement by senior counsel Ram Jethmalani that the investigating agency had not opposed the bail plea of Kanimozhi and four others before the trial court.

 The special court reserved its order on their bail applications for Nov 3.

 Raval told the court that he has twice spoken to Lalit, leading the CBI case before Judge Saini, on the matter.

Lalit gave the reasons why the concession was made, Raval said.

 If the court so desired, the reasons could be disclosed, Raval added.

 Justice Singhvi said that it was the absolute discretion of CBI and the special public prosecutor to submit before the trial court.

 After Raval’s statement, Jethmalani told the court that it should pronounce operative part of its order on the bail pleas as it would “help in mitigating the sufferings” of the accused.

The court also expressed its “serious anguish” over the distorted reporting of its Monday’s proceedings by a section of the media.

 

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