Court pulls up Ruia, denies permission to go abroad

Special CBI Judge O P Saini dismissed Ruia's plea in which he had sought permission to travel abroad from June 6 to June 30 for business purposes and certain family commitments. The judge said that names of the countries, to be visited by the accused, were not mentioned in his application and "the court is left to grapple with the itinerary to find out the countries which would be visited by the accused." 

"I also find that documents attached with the application are also abstruse and obscure and it is very difficult to make any sense out of them," the judge said, adding, "It is thus clear that the application has been filed just to waste the time of the court and not so much for seeking permission to travel abroad." 

Meanwhile, the court allowed the separate application of co-accused Vikash Saraf, Essar Group Director (Strategy and Planning), seeking its permission to travel to Dubai from June 15 to June 30 for his work there.

While allowing Saraf's plea, the court noted the case was not listed for hearing during this period and his presence was not required before it.

However, it cautioned Saraf saying, "It is impressed upon the accused (Saraf) to be careful and vigilant while filing such applications, as filing applications full of howlers and bloomers leads not only to embarrassing situations in the court but also results into wastage of precious time of the court." 

 Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia and Anshuman Ruia, Loop Telecom promoters Kiran Khaitan, her 

husband I P Khaitan and Vikash Saraf are facing trial in the case along with three companies -- Loop Telecom Ltd, Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Tele Holding Ltd (ETHL).

The five individual accused, who are out on bail, have denied the charges levelled against them by CBI.

During the hearing on the plea filed by Anshuman Ruia, his counsel told the court that his client is a Director (Finance) in Essar Global Services FZE and he was required to travel abroad in connection with business interests of these firms and certain family commitments.

CBI opposed his petition saying the accused has taken a plea during trial that he was "nobody" in the firms arrayed as accused in the case but in his application, he has claimed that he was looking after business of Essar companies.

The agency also said that documents attached with the plea were not in conformity with the contents of <g data-gr-id="34">application</g>. The court is hearing final arguments in the case.

CBI had chargesheeted the accused on December 12, 2011, alleging they had cheated the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) by using Loop Telecom as a "front" to secure 2G licences in 2008.

On May 25, 2012, the court had framed charges against all the accused under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with section 420 (cheating) of the IPC. The charge of cheating was separately made out against Saraf only.

During the recording of prosecution evidence in the case which started on July 26, 2012, the court had recorded the statements of 95 CBI witnesses, running into 1,056 pages, while the accused examined 12 witnesses in their defence.