Thanks to the CBI which did not oppose the bail application of Kanimozhi on the 2 G scam case,Kanimozhi who along with Raja was kept in custody under various sections including section 409,which attracts severe jail term, was granted bail today.
That the CBI will not oppose the bail application of Kanimozhi was anticipated.Please read my blog on this .
What is surprising is the fact that the Special Court sought an assurance from the CBI that it would not treat the different accused differently charged under for the 2G scam(taking note of media reports that the CBI will not object to the bail plea of Kanimozhi)
and now the High Court seems to have brushed aside this point.
Also the Special Court observed that the accused ‘was an influential person and an MP and as such the consideration of being a woman will not apply in this case’
Now HC has ignored this as well stating that she is’ private person’
If Kanimozhi is a Private person,Kalmadi of CWG scam does not even exist!
The court had sought a clarification from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the defence on Section 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC saying the Supreme Court judgement granting bail to five corporate executives was silent on a charge that attracts maximum punishment of life term in the case.
Justice VK Shali heard the day-long arguments on the bail applications of Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV chief Sharad Kumar, Cineyug Films’ Karim Morani, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd directors Asif Balwa and Rajiv B Agarwal and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura.
“The Supreme Court judgement does not mention Section 409. I am not saying that the apex court was ignorant of the fact but it is silent on the issue,” said Justice Shali.
“The day the order (on bail) was passed, charges were crystallised in the trial court and it cannot be said that this fact was not known to the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”
Justice Shali referred to the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case and said it talked about maximum sentence of seven years which could be awarded to accused (corporate accused) if they are convicted.
Responding to the query of the judge, senior advocate Altaf Ahmed, who appeared for Kanimozhi, said the apex court was aware of charges framed also under Section 409 of the IPC and its order is binding on all courts.
Meanwhile, the CBI did not oppose the bail pleas of Kanimozhi and four others saying they were private persons.
However, it opposed Behura’s plea saying being a public servant he misused his position.
Surprising is that Sonia Gandhi is missing from this List.
Understandable for Indian media never mentions her name in any scam though it is evident that with out her connivance none of the scams ,2G,ISRO,CWG would have happened.
Karunanidhi should head the list, though.
Yeddiyurappa is a bachcha when compared to this august list.
As for as Jayalalithaa is concerned one should remember she has been acquitted by the court in all the cases except one and she has returned the TANSI land.Even here the Court has observed that she can not be held guilty but advised her to return the land to set a model as a Public Servant.
Suresh Kalmadi, almost single handedly caused a loss of hundreds of crores of rupees to the country. The Commonwealth Games, organized by Kalmadi was no less than a loot with numerous reports of the magnum opus event being soaked in corruption making headlines way before the Games had even started. Apparently, out of Rs. 70000 crores spent on the Games, only half of the amount was actually spent. Owing to his involvement in the scam, Kalmadi was charged with corruption and sent to Tihar jail…A scam worth Rs. 176,000 crore had former Union Cabinet Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Andimuthu Raja at the centre. A. Raja as he is generally called, was the prime accused in the 2G spectrum scam, which was the largest that the country had seen in a long time. Following the shocking exposure, Raja was indicted and forced to resign. Presently, he is too has been lodged at the Tihar jail and is awaiting his trial….
Mayawati has always been criticized for ostentatious display of power in her state. She has allegedly used her status as chief minister to amass large amounts of personal wealth. She was charged with corruption when the Taj Heritage Corridor Case was uncovered. Mayawati’s birthdays have always been media events, where she usually appears decked in diamond jewellery and also accepts public donations for which, she often comes under fire. Her assets are worth millions of dollars and in the year 2007-08, she had paid an income tax of Rs. 26 crores, which placed her amongst the top 20 taxpayers of the year.
The fact that Lalu Prasad Yadav has been an accused in 63-odd cases serves for the fact that Lalu stands as one of the strongest competitor in the list. The biggest scam that rocked Lalu’s political career was the fodder scam which involved the embezzlement of Rs. 950 crore approximately. The accusation of nepotism against him has come up time and again but hardly any action has been taken against him owing to his ‘connections’ in the government.
Former Jharkand Chief Minister, and only the third independent legislator to assume the office of chief minister in India, Madhu Koda was responsible for a scam worth over Rs. 4000 crore. The man exploited the state’s natural resources by licensing illegal mining leases and stashing away the wealth amassed during the undertaking. Furthermore, the Maoists received a 30% share of the booty. Koda was arrested on charges of money laundering and is still in prison following the rejection of numerous bail applications.
Mulayam Singh Yadav is also known as one of the most corrupt ministers in the country despite not being directly involved in any major scams. Apart from his name being involved in appointments of tainted officers and mishandling of his power as chief minister, Mulayam Singh had one major allegation levelled against him– accumulation of disproportionate assets. The case drew limelight on his sons and daughter-in-law as they too were holders of the assests that amounted to crores of rupees.
Karunanidhi
The corruptions charges against M. Karunanidhi are so many that he is often referred to as the king or emperor of corruption. He was accused of lending support to the LTTE and was indicted for abetting the LTTE in the interim report which oversaw the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
Karunanidhi reportedly institutionalized corruption in the South. He was a leading player in the cash for votes scams that are common in the southern region, as well as notorious foe extreme nepotism shown under his rule. Not so surprising, is the fact that the main accused in the 2G scam, A, Raja, considers him to be his mentor.
Very few people can miss the cosy relationship that Sharad Pawar shares with power and money.Every now and then, Pawar draws flak for alleged investments made by him and his family in various illegal projects. He was named by Abdul Karim Telgi, during a narcoanalysis test, stating that it was Pawar’s brainchild to print fake stamp papers across the country and mint money. He was also accused in a multi-crore scam involving wheat imports and institutions headed by him and his close associates were served notices by the Bombay High Court for showing favoritism to his family.
Jayalalithaa
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has a staggering 46 corruption cases against her. Amongst the various scams were the Rs. 70 million coal import scam, Tansi land deal case, case of disproportionate assets and colour TV case, amongst many others. A raid in her residence and business establishments led to the seizure of some 28 kg of jewellery (worth Rs 51 crore), 91 wrist-watches, 41 air-conditioners, 10,500 sarees, 750 pairs of footwears, etc. She along with her former cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats who worked with her are still facing investigation with regard to corruption.
At this rate the accused and witnesses might even sue the CBI for interrupting them in their legal vocation of bribing and cheating!
The CBI should have invented a reason to throw these guys ,including Raja and Kanimozhi for lodging them in jail under Goondas Act.
A Delhi court today asked CBI to file its response to the allegation of an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case that the agency resorted to an “unhealthy practice” of calling a witness “unofficially” to its office in a bid to “tamper” with the evidence.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini issued a notice to the agency seeking its response by November 23 on a plea filed by Vinod Goenka, a director of Swan Telecom and an accused in the case.
Advocate Majid Memon, appearing for Goenka, filed the application saying prosecution witness A N Sethuraman, Group President of Reliance ADA Group, was “unauthorisedly” and “suspiciously” called by CBI two days before recording of his statement on November 11 in the court.
This was done in the name of refreshing his memory and it amounted to interfering with the trial in an illegal manner, Memon alleged.
The allegation also got the support from Sethuraman, whose cross examination concluded today as he testified “the CBI official did say to me to follow whatever I had earlier stated in my statement (given to the agency).”
“It has transpired in the cross-examination of Sethuraman that shortly before giving of evidence, the witness (Sethuraman) was suspiciously and unauthorisedly invited to the CBI office by a CBI officer and was given his statement under section 161 CrPC to be read for the first time. This is impermissible in law.
BJP, despite its wish to think otherwise, has been very soft on 2 G scam, when compared to its vociferous soundbites on CWG and vote -for-money scam.
Earlier Advani declared that the DMK is being made a scapegoat in the 2G issue.
At best he could have said that Congress is more accountable in 2G scam than DMK.
Now Gadkari says,,with his legal acumen that Kanimozhi should be granted bail because the charge sheet has been framed.
He does not seem to have read the reasons cited by the Magistrate O.P.Saini that Kanimozhi is being denied bail on the ground that
-Kanimozhi is not being discriminated against her being a woman(Kanimozhi in her bail application has stated that she is a woman!) as she is an MP and she is influential.
-She holds political power and as such can tamper with the evidence) which is a correct observation considering the fact that her father Karunanidhi, who never found time to meet up with Sonia Gandhi on the State’s problems or on the issue of Tamils being killed in Sri Lanka,met up with Sonia Gandhi and revealed that he got her assurance in this case;predictably the CBI leaked out the information that it will not oppose Kanimozhi’s bail.
-She could tamper with the evidence,(One might recall that Sadiq Pasha was murdered -he was reportedly close to SUN group and was expected to spill the beans and the case has been closed as suicide!)
-Why the CBI wants to apply different yardsticks on bail applications for different people?
One can not, under the circumstances , as the BJP is expecting a break of ties between Congress and DMK , BJP is not getting the response as it should form Advani’s Rath Yatra,BJP does not have an agenda to fight the elections right now,and that too many squabbles with in the BJP, escape the conclusion that the BJP is cozying up with the DMK to bring into its fold to fight the election.
But the Corruption ties of the DMK and the Congress are too intricate and intertwined to allow either the Congress or the DMK to leave the other.
Replying to questions on Rajat Sharma‘s Aap Ki Adalat show, Gadkari said now that a chargesheet has been filed in the 2G scam, Kanimozhi surely deserved bail.
“I am not making a political point. But as far as my legal knowledge goes, once a chargesheet has been filed, the accused should have been granted bail.
“I can assure you even our party would not allege that the Congress connived to get Kanimozhi bail.”
The BJP president went on to allege that the Congress was targeting its alliance partners and political opponents by misusing the CBI.
“Except Suresh Kalmadi, not a single Congress leader has been indicted so far. Don’t you think Chidambaram is responsible for the 2G scam? The Congress is targeting its alliance partners like DMK, NCP and other political opponents.
“I have seen the Commonwealth Games files. There were signatures of the PM, Cabinet Secretary, Group of Ministers and pre-qualification norms were changed. Is Kalmadi alone responsible?
“Why was no action taken on V K Shunglu Committee report against Sheila Dikshit? Why was the Lokayukta report against the Delhi minister rejected?”, asked Gadkari.
For the information of those who are not familiar with the working of Auditing ,it may be mentioned that correspondence and difference of approaches are routine and this does not mean that ‘there is a split”.
One may note that no where in the communication divulged in the news item does it appear that there is a divergence of opinion on the Scam or the magnitude involved. Earlier statement by the CAG office might indicate that the loss is notional and hence it is difficult to quantify it.Common sense says that had the licenses been issued as per the market value, the Government should have received more money than what it has received now.You do not require an Auditor to say this.This is plain common sense.
If the licenses issued were according to market price and mechanism, then how come other Companies paid unheard of premium to buy these Licenses from the original Allottees? For Charity or as a Social Service?
If the transactions are above-board, how is it that people are paid money and why the maze of Transactions to hide the companies?
And why impossible terms were laid to exclude certain companies and favor some?
Long and short of it is that a scam of mammoth proportions has been perpetrated.
Now that the Special Court has framed charges under tough sections, effort is on to discredit the basis on which the case rests,that is CAG Report.
Casting aspersions and professional ethics will water down the Report, thus enble the accused to go scot-free.
The Misinformation on CAG has begun by a group of Media.
Note, all this,after Sonia Gandhi‘s active return to Politics after her illness and the timing of the leakage of this communication is after Karunanidhi met her recently at Delhi!
Please read my blog on Media in India,filed under media.
New Delhi: A split in the CAG over the 2G loss figure has come to the fore. CNN-IBN has accessed copies of confidential notes that show the lead auditor was forced to take the Comptroller Auditor General’s line.
The confidential notes were exchanged between Deputy CAG Rekha Gupta and Director General for Audits R P Singh. According to them, R P Singh was coerced into toeing Gupta and CAG Vinod Rai line.
The high and mighty of India’s political and corporate world have been cooling their heels in Tihar Jail for months for their involvement in the 2G scam, largely on the basis of a report prepared by the CAG. However, now there are questions being raised about the report itself.
The letters accessed by CNN-IBN raise a fundamental question – Why was a consensus difficult to reach in the CAG on this report?…
A letter dated February 26, 2010, as the CAG report was in its final stages of auditing, was almost an accusation against RP Singh, one of the main auditors who prepared the report. Singh is the one who recorded his dissent with the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in the scam.
Written on behalf of Deputy CAG Rekha Gupta and addressed to Singh, the letter says, “It appears that there is no strategy planned for auditing the private service providers. Valuable time has been lost since October and work is yet to begin. A report may be sent every Friday, which will be put up before the CAG.”
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