2G: SC grants bail to Behura, upholds bail to Chandolia

The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave bail to former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, arrested last year on February 2 for his alleged role in the 2G case, and also upheld the bail granted to former Telecom Minister A Raja's ex-Private Secretary R K Chandolia by the trial court.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and H L Dattu upheld the trial court's order for bail to Chandolia, setting aside a Delhi high court order, which had stayed grant of bail to him by the trial court suo motu.

The apex court bench had earlier stayed temporarily the high court's order, which had put on hold the trial court's order granting bail to Chandolia.

The bench granted bail to Behura stipulating that he would furnish a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh and surety of Rs 5 lakh.

With the imminent release of Behura after grant of bail to him, former Telecom Minister A Raja will now be the only accused left in jail in the 2G case as all others, including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi, have been given bail.

Behura and Chandolia were arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation along with A Raja on February 2, 2011.

Chandolia had approached the apex court against the high court's suo-motu decision to stay the grant of bail to him by the special court on December 1, 2011, saying that the order was "unwarranted and erroneous".

The high court had taken suo-motu cognisance of the news reports on grant of bail to Chandolia and suspended it, saying that his release would have an impact on Behura's bail plea, on which the verdict was then reserved. Later, Behura was also denied bail by the high court.

Behura had challenged the high court's order of December 16, 2011, which had denied him the bail on the ground that he was the "perpetrator" of the alleged illegal design of Raja and cannot claim benefit of parity with others released on bail.

The apex court had on December 7, 2011, put on hold the high court's suo-motu decision of staying Chandolia's bail and had issued notice to the CBI on Behura's plea on January 2.