No bail yet for Behura in 2G case

The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected the bail application of Siddharth Behura, former secretary in the telecom ministry and one of the 14 accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

"The bail application is dismissed," Justice V Shali ruled in a terse statement before a packed courtroom. He did not give details of the grounds on which Behura's bail application was dismissed.

Most of the other accused, including Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi (daughter of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi), filmmaker Karim Morani, and a few telecom company executives, have been granted bail earlier by the high court and the special CBI court trying the case (See: Bail for Kanimozhi and 4 others; no luck for Behura).

Behura and Raja, who were arrested on 2 February this year, are the only accused who are in jail, as all 12 others have been granted bail by various courts. This followed a Supreme Court decision to grant bail to five corporate executives, saying bail should be the rule and persons could not be jailed endlessly without trial. The lower courts took this as a precedent and granted bail to the rest.

However, the Central Bureau of Investigation has contended that Raja and Behura were public servants and hence their cases should be viewed ''differently''. Justice Shali has apparently accepted this contention.

Behura will approach the Supreme Court on Monday for bail, his legal counsel Aman Lekhi told The Economic Times.

Raja is now the only person accused in the case who has not applied for bail. He has been waiting for the outcome of the others' bail plea before applying for relief from being lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail for over 10 months now.