JOIN USThe poet-politician had not just DMK’s band of nearly a dozen MPs but also former telecom minister A Raja for company in the court hall, situated at Patiala House in the heart of the city. Raja is under arrest in the case since February 2.
Kanimozhi, named co-conspirator in the chargesheet in 2G scam case, and Raja sat almost face to face in the small hall even as her husband Aravindan, with whom she arrived at the court, sat behind her. Kanimozhi spoke to Raja a few times and the two were involved in a brief discussion during lunch time. At the end of day’s proceeding, Raja, returning to judicial custody, bid good bye to his boss’s daughter who was getting back to her B D Marg residence.
The court hall was jampacked with DMK MPs, journalists and advocates. There was a huge crowd of DMK supporters outside the court hall, bearing the sun as the hearing continued throughout the day inside. As she came out, the 43-year-old MP, smiling, refused to speak to media.
However, not all were as calm and collected as Kanimozhi. Her party MP, Adi Shankar, fainted in the court hall. He soon recovered as he was helped by his MP colleagues.
All the 14 named in the first and supplementary charge sheets of the CBI in the 2G scam were to appear before the court on Friday but Karim Morani of Cineyug Films got exemption as he has been admitted to a Mumbai hospital.
Among those who were present in the court besides Raja were his then private secretary R K Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa. Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom, Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, and three officials of Reliance ADAG — Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara — all also accused in the case.
Raja, Chandolia, Behura, Shahid Balwa, Asif Balwa, Agarwal, Goenka, Chandra, Doshi, Nair and Pipara are at present in judicial custody.