Managing Director of Unitech Wireless Sanjay Chandra, who is an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case, told the Supreme Court on Monday that there was no case against him after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a report there was no loss to the exchequer in spectrum allocation.
Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Mr. Chandra, made submissions before a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Dattu and sought bail. He said the whole case of the CBI in the charge sheet was that Rs. 30,000-crore loss was caused in the 2G spectrum allocation.
However, during arguments on framing of charges in the trial court, newspapers reported that the TRAI told the CBI that there was no loss, he said. “I am entitled to a copy of the TRAI report, but the CBI had not provided me a copy. If the trial court proceeds to frame charges despite the TRAI report, great prejudice would be caused to my client.”
At this juncture, Justice Singhvi told Additional Solicitor-General Harin Raval: “If newspapers have already published, what is the difficulty in sharing the TRAI report? We would like to go through the TRAI report.”
Mr. Raval said that the report, being an inter-departmental communication, he would place it in a sealed cover, but it cannot be shared. “It is not a public document as it is confidential.”
The Bench permitted Mr. Jethmalani to rely on newspaper reports for his arguments on the report. Senior counsel said the court should grant bail to the petitioner as it was denied by the trial court and the Delhi High Court on the only ground that there was a loss of Rs 30,000 crore to the exchequer. “If there was no loss, I am entitled for bail. Grant of bail is a right and refusal of bail is an exception.”
“No evidence of money trail”
Mr. Chandra said in the petition that he was in jail for 150 days and the CBI told the special court that the probe into allegations against him and 16 co-accused was complete. He asserted that there was no evidence of any money trail leading to him or his bribing the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja.
He said there was no evidence of a meeting of minds between him and either of the co-accused. Unitech group of companies was innocent applicants for UAS licences and he had nothing to do with the decision of public servants to change the policy of the first come, first served or the cut-off date. There was no advantage to him in conspiring with the co-accused for allocation of spectrum in the most lucrative circle of Delhi to some other company or to revise the cut-off date.
Arguments will continue on Tuesday.
