2G case: Balwa fined Rs.1 lakh for wasting court's time

New Delhi: Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case, was fined Rs.1 lakh by a court here Friday for his "nefarious conduct" and wasting the court's time.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge O.P. Saini, however, allowed Balwa's plea to record his fresh statement in the case after considering his apology.

"Balwa is let off by castigating him for his nefarious conduct in the court accompanied by imposition of a nominal cost of Rs.100,000 on him for wasting time of the court, causing unnecessary inconvenience and forcing unnecessary adjournments on the court for several days."

The court directed that the cost be deposited within seven days from today (Friday), failing which warrant of attachment shall be issued.

Balwa had sought withdrawal of answers he filed in response to the court's query, leading to him facing the court's ire with Judge Saini saying he "deserved" to be taken into custody for his misconduct.

The court, however, did not allow the CBI plea seeking cancellation of Balwa's bail in the case, but pulled up Balwa and his lawyers, saying that their conduct was not appropriate and up to the mark for not checking if the answers were proper and did not contain any objectionable material and also for distracting attention of the court.

The court said: "The existing statement(s) shall remain on record minus the objectionable parts, wherever the same occur, whether detected or not, which shall be deemed to be deleted and that further recording of the statement of accused shall resume from the stage where it was stopped."

The judge said there is no bar in re-examining an accused.

It observed that although the court had allowed use of pen drive and had permitted long and detailed answers as insisted on by Balwa and his counsel Vijay Aggarwal, they "had other designs of vitiating the proceedings by misusing the opportunity".

"I may note with regret that in the course of the day when I was checking the replies (by Balwa) on the computer screen, advocate Vijay Aggarwal and accused Shahid Usman Balwa kept repeatedly addressing me and thereby diverting my attention from the computer screen," the judge noted in his order.

On account of this, objectionable material contained in several replies went unnoticed and undetected, he added.

"In view of the above discussion, I have no manner of doubt that this was done deliberately and designedly by accused Shahid Usman Balwa and advocate Vijay Aggarwal to mislead the court," said the judge.