The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved order on the bail plea of 2G case accused Unitech Wireless Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group's officials Hari Nair, Gautam Doshi and Surrendra Pipara.
A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Dattu, while reserving order, expressed anguish over media reports of the court proceedings in the case published on Tuesday. They said the proceedings in the trial court (which reserved verdict for November 3) would not get influenced by these reports.
Earlier, responding to a query posed by the court on Monday as to what transpired in the trial court on October 24, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Harin Raval, told the Bench that the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) made a concession before the special court that Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV Director Sharath Kumar, Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal and film producer Karim Morani could be granted bail as they figured in the supplementary charge sheet.
The ASG, however, said the SPP had made it clear that it would be the discretion of the trial court to consider the bail notwithstanding the concession.
Justice Singhvi said, “It [granting concession] is the absolute discretion of the SPP and the investigating agency and nobody can question the wisdom of the SPP. We wish to express our deep anguish over the distorted reporting on what happened in the court on Monday. It is most unfortunate and regrettable. It is an attempt to browbeat the court. Another attempt is made to tarnish the image of the CBI and the SPP. Some day they [media] will be in trouble. We are heading for that.”
In a brief order, the Bench recorded its anguish and the statement of the ASG and reserved the verdict on the bail applications of the five corporate executives.