Nov/23/2011

2G case: SC grants bail to 5 corporate executives

Five top corporate executives, accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, were on Wednesday granted bail by the Supreme Court raising the hopes of other accused including former Telecom Minister A. Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi, who have been jail for more than six months.

In the first bail in the 2G case, a bench comprising justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Dattu directed the release of the five corporate executives — Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom director Vinod Goenka and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group executives Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.

The prolonged detention of the accused with Mr. Raja alone being behind the bars for more than 10 months had drawn criticism from jurists, who felt that denial of bail was not proper.

”... But at the same time, right to bail is not to be denied merely because of the sentiments of the community against the accused,” the bench said in a 63-page verdict.

Hours after the Supreme Court judgement, Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini ordered their release from Tihar Jail after all the five accused furnished a bond with the two solvent sureties, each of the sum of Rs. 5 lakh.

Buoyed by the judgement, Ms. Kanimozhi and five others approached the Delhi High Court for advancing the hearing on their bail plea which is scheduled for hearing on December 1.

Apart from Ms. Kanimozhi, others who have pleaded for bail are former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, DMK-run Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar and Bollywood filmmaker Karim Morani, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables.

Mr. Raja, who is the main accused in the scam, has so far not approached any court for the bail.

The bench considered that the investigation against the accused was complete and the trial may take a long time to conclude coupled with CBI’s failure to make out a case for refusal of bail.

Imposing stringent conditions for their release, the court said, “The trial may take considerable time and it looks to us that the appellants, who are in jail have to remain in jail longer than the period of detention, had they been convicted.”

The bench said it was not in the interest of justice that the accused should be in jail for an indefinite period, though the accused are charged with economic offences of huge magnitude which if proved “may jeopardise the economy of the country".

“No doubt, the offence alleged against the appallents is a serious one in terms of alleged huge loss to the state exchequer, that, by itself, should not deter us from enlarging the appellants on bail when there is no serious contentions of the CBI that the accused if released on bail would interfere with the trial or tamper with the evidence.

“We do not see any good reason to detain the accused in custody, that too, after the completion of the investigation and filing of the chargesheet,” Justice Dattu, writing the 63-page judgement, said.

“The grant or denial is regulated, to a large extent, by the facts and circumstances of each particular case. But at the same time, right to bail is not to be denied merely because of the sentiments of the community against the accused.

“The primary purposes of bail in a criminal case are to relieve the accused of imprisonment, to relieve the State of the burden of keeping him, pending the trial, and at the same time, to keep the accused constructively in the custody of the Court, whether before or after conviction, to assure that he will submit to the jurisdiction of the Court and be in attendance thereon whenever his presence is required,” the bench said.

The decision was welcomed by lawyers Ram Jethmalani, Majeed Memon and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for many of the accused, saying the court has upheld the well-established bail jurisprudence of the country.

However, the bench said failure to comply with the bail conditions would not stop the CBI from seeking cancellation of the bail granted to them.

“We reserve liberty to the CBI to make an appropriate application for modification/recalling the order passed by us, if for any reason, the appellants violate any of the conditions imposed by this court,” the bench said.

Among the conditions for granting bail, the court restrained them from going abroad and asked them to surrender their passport before the trial court.

It further said that the accused will have to appear before the Special CBI court on each hearing and have to take prior permission for not attending the proceedings.

Other accused in the case include Mr. Raja’s private secretary R.K. Chandolia and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa.

Three telecom firms Reliance Telecom, Swan Telecom and Unitech (Tamil Nadu) Wireless too have been listed as accused in the CBI cahrgesheet in the case.

The CBI had chargesheeted 14 persons in the scam, with Mr. Raja being the first to be arrested on February 2, 2011 along with Mr. Chandolia and Mr. Behura.

The five executives, who were granted bail on Wednesday, were arrested on April 20, 2011.

Rupee ends at all-time low of 52.35

Falling for the eight day in a row, the Indian rupee on Wednesday ended at 52.35/36 -- its all-time closing low -- against the U.S. dollar amid continuing signs of capital outflows and steep fall in stock markets.

Dealers said persistent capital outflows amid late dollar buying by importers kept the rupee under pressure despite suspected Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervention.

Referring to the decline in the value of rupee, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi said, “RBI is closely monitoring the situation and will do the needful as required.”

In a see-saw trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened weaker. However, dollar selling by non-PSU banks as well as suspected intervention by the central bank helped the rupee to bounced back to the day’s high of 51.70.

The Reserve Bank’s intervention, however, could not be officially ascertained.

The rupee had on Tuesday plunged to its life--time low of 52.73 intra-day.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark index Sensex fell to over two-year low of 15,699.97 on Wednesday as investors sold heavily ahead of the settlement in this month’s derivative contracts amid worries of slow growth in global economies.

“As non-PSU banks entered the forex market, Indian rupee traded strong in first half. However, in the second half it traded weak, mainly taking cues from global markets where dollar quoted strong against the major currencies. Local equities closed down by over two per cent which also weakened the rupee,” Alpari Financial Services (Indai) CEO Pramit Brahmbhatt said.

At the fag end, the rupee came under pressure again on dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners, to meet their month-end needs and touched a low of 52.60 before concluding weak at 52.35/36, down 6 paise from its last close.

FIIs sold shares worth USD 623.99 million in last six days since November 15

Nehwal suffers first round defeat in China Open

Fourth seed Saina Nehwal made a shock first round exit from the China Open as the Indian challenge ended in the singles events of the prestigious badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

Saina made a strong start by winning the first game but went on to lose 21—15— 22—24 15—21 in the women’s singles after battling for one hour and one minute.

There is no Indian left in the men’s singles event as Parupalli Kashyap lost 17—21 16—21 to Japan’s Kenichi Tago in 46 minutes in his first round match.

Adding to the disappointment of Indian camp, Ajay Jayaram then lost his men’s singles first round match 18—21 19—21 to Hong Kong’s Wing Ki Wong.

However, Jwala Gutta and V Diju kept the Indian tricolour flying by winning their first round in the mixed doubles.

They defeated Indonesian team of Debby Susanto and Muhammad Rijal 21—17 21—16 in half—an—hour contest.

Jwala, teaming up with Ashwini Ponappa, has also advanced to the women’s doubles second round after defeating Australia’s Leanne Choo and Renuga Veeran 21—15 21—16.

Indian challenge also ended in the men’s doubles event following defeat of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas.

They lost 12—21 14—21 to fifth seed Malaysian pair of Kien Keat Koo and Boon Heong Tan.

RMV Gurusaidutt and Arvind Bhat had lost in the men’s singles qualifiers. Gurusaidutt had lost 21—13 16—21 21—23 to China’s Yi Lu while Bhat failed to cross the qualifying hurdle after losing 13—21 14—21 to China’s Kai Wen.

Delightful day for Omkar and Gagan

Omkar Singh took the top spot among the eight qualifiers and defended his position with élan in the decider spread over 10 rounds in the 10m air pistol final of the 55th National shooting championships which concluded here on Tuesday. The Indian Navy marksman followed up his 578 qualifying score with a 98.6 (aggregate 676.6) in the final.

Vivek Singh (Air India) almost pulled off a surprise with four consecutive 10-plus shots, but fell behind 0.1 points and settled for the silver with 676.5. Omprakash Choudhary (Navy) was a close third with 676.4.

Earlier, Gagan Narang chased down the gold he was looking for at this Nationals, clinching the gruelling men's 50m rifle 3-Position event ahead of 2011 Changwon World Cup champion, Sanjeev Rajput.

Gagan, the latest Khel Ratna awardee, managed 398, 384 and 392 to lead the eight qualifiers. He began with a 10.5 in the final and repeated the feat on the 10th shot to take home the gold with an aggregate of 1272. Rajput's 1156 in qualifying pulled him down to second place overall, despite hitting the bull's eye six times for an outstanding 101.1 in the 10-shot final round.

Relieved

Omkar expressed relief after escaping Vivek's rapid ascent in the last round. “In the past, I used to lead in qualifying and slip to the second spot when someone caught up from behind. This time, I wanted to shoot aggressively and at the same time remain ahead of the others,” said the Navy shooter, based at INS Agrani in Coimbatore.

“My aim is to win a medal at the Asian championships while competing against the Chinese and Koreans. It will boost my confidence as the Asian standards are close to world levels,” Omkar said. For Gagan, climbing to the top of the podium made up for two silvers earlier in 50m prone (behind Sushil Ghaley) and 10m air rifle (behind Abhinav Bindra).

According to National coach Prof. Sunny Thomas, the Indian team for the 2012 Asian shooting championships in Qatar will be announced in New Delhi on Wednesday after the selection committee meeting.

The results (finals):

Men's 10m air pistol:1. Omkar Singh (Navy) (578, 98.6) 676.6; 2. Vivek Singh (Air India) (574, 102.5) 676.5; 3. Omprakash Choudhary (Navy) (577, 99.4) 676.4; 4. Yogesh Singh (Navy) (577, 98.6) 675.6; 5. Amanpreet Singh (ONGC) (576, 99.1) 675.1; 6. Samaresh Jung (CISF) (576, 96.4) 674.4; 7. Amit Pilaniya (Army) (577, 96.3) 673.3; 8. Sikander Mann (Pun) (574, 98) 672.

50m rifle 3-Position:1. Gagan Narang (Air India) (1174, 98) 1272; 2. Sanjeev Rajput (Navy) (1156, 101.1) 1257; 3. Imran Hassan Khan (Army) (1154, 97.1) 1251.1; 4. Surendra Rathore (Army) (1153, 96.7) 1249.7; 5. Sushil Ghaley (Army) (1157, 92.3) 1249.3; 6. Satyendra Singh (Army) (1147, 99.1) 1246.1; 7. Hariom Singh (Army) (1148, 91.5) 1239.5; 8. Aliyas Ali (Army) (1146, 88) 1234.

Yahoo! offers video service

Yahoo! India on Tuesday launched its premium video service Yahoo! Video, available at video. yahoo.in. The service offers content across multiple genres including news, entertainment, lifestyle and movies. It promises high-quality video experience, free for all Internet users in India. Yahoo! India has now partnered 35 leading content producers and plans to rope in more firms soon.

“Online video consumption is growing at a rapid pace…Yahoo! Video redefines the online video category through licensed, original and diverse content promising an unparalleled experience to Indian users,” Yahoo! India Managing Director Arun Tadanki told journalists here.

Yahoo! Video offers content acquired from original sources, spanning short and full-length movies, entertainment, lifestyle, sports, providing access to an archive of thousands of videos. Important to note, Yahoo! India recently launched Movieplex, a destination where users enjoy licensed full-length movies for free