2G: A Raja completes 9-months in jail, never sought bail

New Delhi, Nov 2: A Raja, former telecom minister, completed nine months in jail on Nov 2 without even once trying his release on bail unlike other 13 accused persons in the 2G spectrum case, who have knocked the doors of all the three courts, including the Supreme Court.

Raja, also a lawyer by profession, was the first along with two others to be arrested by the CBI on Feb 2 and till now he has preferred not to move any bail application either in the trial court or Delhi High Court or the Supreme Court. In stark contrast, his party colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, has knocked the doors of all courts and her fate is likely to be decided by Special CBI Judge O P Saini, who has reserved the order on her bail plea for Nov 3.

Besides Kanimozhi, others whose bail pleas will be decided are Raja's former private secretary R K Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, who were arrested along with Raja. The special judge is also likely to pronounce tomorrow the order on bail pleas of Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Bollywood producer Karim Morani.

The Supreme Court has also reserved its order on the bail pleas of five corporate honchos -- Sanjay Chandra, MD of Unitech Ltd, Vinod Goenka, MD of DB Realty and Reliance ADAG top executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair.

Earlier, the bail pleas of all the 13 accused persons were dismissed either by the trial or the High Court and in the case of Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar, the apex court had asked them to approach the trial court afresh for bail after framing of charges. The charges were framed against all the accused in the case on Oct 22.

PTI