Five corporate executives get bail in telecoms corruption case

Nov 23, 2011, 7:11 GMT

New Delhi - India's Supreme Court Wednesday granted bail to five corporate executives charged in a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving the sale of telecommunications licences in 2008.

A special court in New Delhi hearing the case had earlier refused them bail after charges were filed by federal investigators.

A Supreme Court panel said Sanjay Chandra of Unitech Wireless Ltd, Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, and Reliance ADA Group's Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair would be released on sureties of 500,00 rupees (about 9,600 dollars) each.

The Central Bureau of Investigation could ask the Supreme Court to modify the order if the bail were misused, the panel said.

Fourteen people including former telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja are facing trial in the case.

Raja is accused of selling spectrum licences in 2008 at giveway prices without following proper bidding procedures, causing the national exchequer an estimated loss of 39 billion dollars.

The executives charged are top officials of companies believed to have benefited from the sale.

Unitech and Swan Telecom are Indian partners of Norway's Telenor ASA and Etisalat Co of the United Arab Emirates, respectively.