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A Delhi court on Wednesday deferred till August 20 its order on the bail pleas of former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others who were chargesheeted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a 2G scam related money laundering case.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini, who had on July 22 reserved the order on the bail pleas of the accused for today, said that the order was not yet complete and fixed August 20 for its pronouncement.
"Since the order on the bail applications is not complete on account of voluminous documents... put up for order on August 20," the judge said. ED had chargesheeted 19 accused -- 10 individuals and nine firms -- in the case saying that the transaction of Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion), which was allegedly paid to DMK-run Kalaignar TV, was "not genuine" and it was a "bribe for grant of telecom licences to DB Group companies".
The agency had also claimed that its probe into the case emanates from 2G spectrum allocation scam and the accused had allegedly conspired and committed offences under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, ED had named Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, Bollywood producer Karim Morani, DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal and P Amirtham as accused in the case.
The ED has also named Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Kusegaon Realty Pvt Ltd (formerly known as Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd), Cineyug Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd (formerly known as Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd), Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd.
Also, Dynamix Realty, Eversmile Construction Company Pvt Ltd, Conwood Constructions and Developers (P) Ltd, DB Realty Ltd and Nihar Constructions Pvt Ltd as accused in the case.
During the arguments on the bail pleas, the ED had argued that the accused had committed the offence of money laundering punishable under the provisions of PMLA.