A court here on Friday sent Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa to the Tihar Central Jail until March 3, after the Central Bureau of Investigation did not seek further extension of his custody in the 2G spectrum scam.
Surprisingly, both the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja, who was remanded in 14-day judicial custody on Thursday, and Mr. Balwa did not move bail applications.
In its application seeking judicial remand of Mr. Balwa for 14 days, the CBI said that despite Mr. Raja and Mr. Balwa being “confronted with each other and with other witnesses, suspects and documents” they did not answer questions and were “hiding the real facts” regarding criminal conspiracy, money trail and quid pro quo.
The investigating agency said “documents submitted by one telecom company to the Department of Telecommunications on the basis of which their priority for allocation of spectrum was to be determined, could not be traced/recovered. The same are essentially required to reach a logical conclusion and to complete the chain of events.”
The CBI said the Dynamix Balwas Group managing director would need to be kept in judicial custody as there was “every likelihood” of documents being tampered with and attempts made to threaten or win over witnesses.
Counsel's plea
Mr. Balwa's counsel Vijay Aggarwal moved three applications submitting that the accused be allowed “home-cooked food, carry medicines as well as a special orthopaedic mattress and pillow as he suffered from back pain.” Special Judge (CBI) O.P. Saini directed the Tihar Jail superintendent to consider these pleas as per the jail manual.
A Tihar Jail official said Mr. Balwa would not be allowed to sleep on the special orthopaedic mattress and pillow as the jail manual had no such provision.
M. Balwa was arrested in Mumbai on February 8, and produced before the Patiala House CBI court on February 10. He was sent to police custody until February 14 and then again remanded until Friday 18. Mr. Balwa will now be produced in court along with Mr. Raja on March 3 when their remand ends.
