2G: Ravi Ruia, three others appear before court

New Delhi, March 31 (IANS) Corporate honcho Ravi Ruia of the Essar group and three others Saturday appeared before a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court hearing of the 2G spectrum allocation case, after skipping court many times and moved their bail application.

Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini put up the arguments on bail for April 21 after CBI told the court that it will file reply on their bail application.

Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia, Anshuman Ruia, and Loop Telecom promoters I.P. Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan were earlier exempted from personal appearance before the court three times - Jan 27, Feb 22 and March 17.

The court on the last hearing while granting exemption to all four accused had directed them to appear in person on March 31 saying it would be in their interest to appear in the court.

The third set of charges filed by the CBI in the 2G case alleged that the Essar Group used Loop as a front to acquire telecom licences in 2008. Essar, which already had a 33 percent stake in Vodafone, held substantial equity in Loop and thus violated telecom licence norms, the chargesheet said.

According to the government auditor, the 2G spectrum allocation case, allegedly masterminded by former telecom minister A. Raja, pertained to biased distribution of mobile airwaves and operating licences, in lieu of kickbacks, to telecom firms that could have cost the treasury up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore in lost revenue.

Nineteen individuals and six companies are accused in the case. Fourteen were arrested, and of them except for Raja and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, the others have been released on bail.