The Delhi High Court today asked the special CBI court to furnish original documents to ascertain claims of two corporate honchos, accused of facilitating transfer of Rs 200 crore from DB Group firms to DMK-run Kalaignar TV in 2G scam, that they were "valid" loan transactions and not bribe.
"The trial court is directed to hand over these documents (pertaining to purported loan transactions) to the investigating officer who shall bring them here on the next date of hearing on June 20," Justice Ajit Bharihoke said.
Justice Bharihoke had recently dismissed bail pleas of alleged beneficiaries of Rs 200 crore bribe trail -- DMK MP Kanimozhi and Kaliagnar TV MD Sharad Kumar.
Seeking bail for Rajeev Agarwal and Asif Balwa, the directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetable Private Ltd, their counsel said that a loan was advanced to Cineyug Films which, in turn, paid the money to Kalaignar TV and the CBI has wrongly termed the money transfers as bribe transactions.
Justice Bharihoke sought originals of the alleged agreements executed between Kalaignar TV, Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd and Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetable Pvt Ltd.
It has been alleged that D B Group, promoted by Shahid Balwa, after "unauthorisedly" getting the UAS licenses with active connivance of former Telecom Minister A Raja routed Rs 200 crore bribe through its group firms, Kusegaon Fruits and Cineyug Films, to Kalaignar TV.
The alleged bribe money came back through the same route after Raja was summoned for the first time for investigation on December 24, 2010.
The accused, however, claimed that the alleged bribe routing was inter-corporate loan transactions. Vijay Agarwal, counsel for Asif and Rajeev Agarwal who are in Tihar jail along with other high-profile co-accused in the Supreme Court-monitored case, said the CBI did not consider the valid loan documents and arrayed them as accused.
The accused had claimed that Cineyug Films wanted to acquire stakes in Kalaignar TV and, hence, transferred the money to the channel for subscribing its shares.
Later, Cinyug Films, due to financial reasons, chose not to buy the stakes and treated transferred money as loan, Agarwal argued.
The counsel also attempted to rebut the court''s earlier findings in dismissing bail applications of Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar, saying, "They (Asif and Rajeev) are small persons. They neither run a political party nor share power nor run a telecom company."
Justice Bharihoke, dismissing bail plea of the DMK MP, had said that she belonged to a political party which shares power at the Centre and may use financial and politicial clout to influence the witnesses.
Pressing for their bail, the counsel said there was a contradiction in CBI's charge sheet about the source of the alleged bribe which travelled from DB realty to Kalaignar TV through Kusegaon and Cineyug.
"They (CBI) do not know where the money came from. At one place they say its came from Etisalat Mauritius and at another they say the money came from IL&FS. Charges on the accused can be alternative but facts cannot be," he said. |