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An Indian court said Saturday it will rule May 14 on a bail plea by lawmaker Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and Sharad Kumar in a high-profile case related to the allegedly rigged sale of telecom licenses and bandwidth in 2008.
The court—set up to hear cases related to the telecom scam—was hearing arguments on why Ms. Kanimozhi, a member of the upper house of parliament and Mr. Kumar, managing director of Kalaignar TV, shouldn't be arrested.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing one of the country's biggest corruption scandals ever and has arrested 11 people so far. It estimates that the government lost more than 300 billion rupees ($6.77 billion) in potential revenue.
The agency, in its charges filed April 25, said former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, Ms. Kanimozhi and Mr. Kumar accepted bribes of 2 billion rupees from Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. Director Vinod Goenka and co-founder Shahid Balwa from the accounts of DB Group companies in lieu of "undue favors" in the allocation of licenses to Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. The CBI has said that the 2 billion rupee bribe was funneled to Kalaignar through an intermediary firm, Cineyug Films. This was aided by Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal—directors at Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Ltd. and partners of Dynamix Realty, a unit of DB Group—and Karim Morani, a Cineyug executive.
Swan is now called Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd., in which the UAE's Emirates Telecommunications Corp. bought a stake in 2008. DB Realty, a real estate firm, is Etisalat's partner in Etisalat DB. All named have previously denied any wrongdoing.
The CBI counsel on Saturday told the court that Ms. Kanimozhi was the key person to launch Kalaignar TV in June 2007. The counsel said it is "hard to believe" that she, as a 20% shareholder, wasn't involved in any key decisions in the company.
The counsel's submission comes a day after Ms. Kanimozhi's lawyer said that all key decisions were made by executives appointed by the board of directors and she, as a shareholder, had no role to play in it.
Ms. Kanimozhi is the daughter of M. Karunanidhi, who leads the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or DMK, political party. The DMK is a key member of India's Congress party-led coalition government. Kalaignar TV is jointly owned by Messrs. Kumar and Karunanidhi's relatives.
Ms. Kanimozhi is the second DMK politician to be embroiled in the CBI probe after Mr. Raja, who was arrested by the agency in February.
The court—set up to hear cases related to the telecom scam—was hearing arguments on why Ms. Kanimozhi, a member of the upper house of parliament and Mr. Kumar, managing director of Kalaignar TV, shouldn't be arrested.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing one of the country's biggest corruption scandals ever and has arrested 11 people so far. It estimates that the government lost more than 300 billion rupees ($6.77 billion) in potential revenue.
The agency, in its charges filed April 25, said former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, Ms. Kanimozhi and Mr. Kumar accepted bribes of 2 billion rupees from Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. Director Vinod Goenka and co-founder Shahid Balwa from the accounts of DB Group companies in lieu of "undue favors" in the allocation of licenses to Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. The CBI has said that the 2 billion rupee bribe was funneled to Kalaignar through an intermediary firm, Cineyug Films. This was aided by Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal—directors at Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Ltd. and partners of Dynamix Realty, a unit of DB Group—and Karim Morani, a Cineyug executive.
Swan is now called Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd., in which the UAE's Emirates Telecommunications Corp. bought a stake in 2008. DB Realty, a real estate firm, is Etisalat's partner in Etisalat DB. All named have previously denied any wrongdoing.
The CBI counsel on Saturday told the court that Ms. Kanimozhi was the key person to launch Kalaignar TV in June 2007. The counsel said it is "hard to believe" that she, as a 20% shareholder, wasn't involved in any key decisions in the company.
The counsel's submission comes a day after Ms. Kanimozhi's lawyer said that all key decisions were made by executives appointed by the board of directors and she, as a shareholder, had no role to play in it.
Ms. Kanimozhi is the daughter of M. Karunanidhi, who leads the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or DMK, political party. The DMK is a key member of India's Congress party-led coalition government. Kalaignar TV is jointly owned by Messrs. Kumar and Karunanidhi's relatives.
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