A Delhi court on Wednesday granted bail to former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and 6 others who were chargesheeted by the the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a 2G scam-related money laundering case.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini allowed the bail plea of 83-year-old Ammal on a personal bond of Rs. five lakh with two sureties of the like amount.
The court, however, dismissed the plea of Ammal seeking discharge in the case on the ground that she was not well and was suffering from unsoundness of mind.
It asked Ammal’s counsel to furnish the bail bond within two days.
On August 6, the court had deferred for today its order on the bail pleas of Raja, Kanimozhi and others who were chargesheeted by the ED in this case.
ED had chargesheeted 19 accused — 10 individuals and nine firms — in the case saying that the transaction of Rs 200 crore, which was allegedly paid to DMK-run Kalaignar TV, was “not genuine” and it was a “bribe for grant of telecom licences to DB Group companies”.
Ammal was holding 60 per cent stake in Kalaignar TV while Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar were holding 20 per cent stake each, the agency had said.
The agency had also claimed that its probe into the case emanates from 2G spectrum allocation scam and the accused had allegedly conspired and committed offences under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, ED had named Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, Bollywood producer Karim Morani, Ammal and P Amirtham as accused in the case.
