A Raja gets bail with conditions: No visiting DoT or Tamil Nadu

A. Raja, former telecom minister accused in the 2G spectrum scam, has been set some conditions for the bail granted to him on Tuesday. The minister, who has been in Tihar Jail since February 2011, cannot visit the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) or his home state Tamil Nadu.

Raja, the last of the 14 individuals charged in the case to be still in prison, was given bail by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special judge O.P. Saini.

"Considering the progress of the trial, period of custody of the accused and the fact that all other accused have been released on bail, I am of the opinion that further detention of the accused would not serve any purpose and, for these reasons, I am inclined to grant applicant (Raja) bail," the judge said.

Saini also directed that Raja could not visit the DoT or Tamil Nadu without the court's prior permission.

The announcement that Raja, who has been behind bars in the capital's Tihar Jail, was granted bail triggered wild slogan shouting and cheering by his DMK supporters, mainly from Tamil Nadu, who raised slogans in Tamil like: "Raja, vazhga!" (long live Raja!)

The DMK also expressed confidence that he would come out clean. Besides the 14 individuals, three companies were also charged in the case related to 2G spectrum licences allocated during his tenure as communications minister.

"We are happy. Getting bail is part of the legal process. We are confident that Raja will come out clean in the whole episode," DMK spokesperson T.K.S. Elangovan told IANS.

The CBI had opposed Raja's bail application, saying he faced charges of accepting bribes of Rs 200 crore, which makes his case different from former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, who was granted bail by the Supreme Court last week.

Raja, in his bail application, has requested the court to release him on the ground of parity.

The minister resigned from telecom minister on November 14, 2010, in the wake of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reporting that his 2008 decision to allocate 2G spectrum on a first-come-first-served basis had caused the exchequer a presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

The CBI had arrested him on February 2, 2011.

with IANS inputs