NEW DELHI, May 23: CBI in a Delhi court today sought the cancellation of the bail granted to Swan Telecom Promoter Shahid Usman Balwa in the 2G spectrum allocation case, saying his conduct requires reconsideration and recall of the relief given to him earlier.
The agency was responding to Balwa’s plea seeking permission to withdraw answers given by him earlier to court in the ongoing 2G scam case trial.
“The conduct of A-4 (Balwa) in replying to the questions by including objectionable content… Is certainly in flagrant violation and breach of faith so reposed and the condition so imposed and, as such, the grant of bail to him requires reconsideration and recall by the court,” CBI told Special CBI Judge OP Saini.
The agency said that the court should take proper action on the issue as per the law and may cancel the bail granted to the accused.
“Looking into the facts and circumstances and taking note of the objectionable content included by the accused and the other persons responsible for it, the court may take action as deemed fit… Against them,” it said, adding that “the court may also cancel the bail granted to (Balwa)”.
It also claimed that the “slant” in replies given by Balwa reflects that the objectionable content was not inadvertent but deliberately included.
“The trend and slant in replies given by accused person shows that the objectionable content was not inadvertent but included deliberately. It is also noticeable that all the accused have the same group of advocates and the objectionable content so included is thus not attributed merely to these accused,” it alleged.
The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on May 28.
Balwa — who had earlier faced the court’s ire when it observed that he “deserved” to be taken into custody for his misconduct — had filed a plea contending that he will “not raise any question of prejudice caused to him on grounds of non-understanding of any questions” asked by the court.
In its response, CBI also requested the court that Balwa’s statement be recorded afresh. Balwa, in his plea, had also requested the court to take on record fresh written answers.
He had said that during the recording of his statement, which was deferred by the judge, all the questions were “explained properly” by the court and, due to “some inadvertence”, it was recorded for some questions that he was not able to understand what was bein asked.
CBI had earlier argued that Balwa’s contention that he failed to understand the questions asked by the court under the provisions of the CrPC was only to take advantage in future.
However, Balwa had apologised to the judge, saying he had not done anything intentionally.
The stage for the recording of evidence of former Telecom Minister A Raja and 16 other co-accused, including DMK MP Kanimozhi, was set earlier when the court supplied a draft questionnaire to the accused containing 1,718 questions and running into 824 pages.
Besides Raja, Kanimozhi and Balwa, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja’s erstwhile private secretary RK Chandolia, Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and Reliance ADAG executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair are facing trial in the case.
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in the case.
Besides these 14 accused, three telecom firms Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd are also facing trial in the case. (PTI)
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