New Delhi:
The CBI special court hearing the 2G scam case will give its decision on Kanimozhi's bail plea on May 14.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's daughter had applied for bail via her high-profile lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, on Friday. The CBI opposed her bail plea in court today.
"Kanimozhi is the controlling mind behind Kalaignar TV. Behind the scenes, she took the decisions," Special Public Prosecutor UU Lalit told the court on behalf of the CBI.
"She had been in regular touch with Raja regarding the launch of Kalaignar TV. He lobbied with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for permits for Kalaignar TV. Kanimozhi was the active brain behind the channel. If a family controls 80% stake in a company, it's hard to believe that anyone else can be the brain behind it," he added.
If denied bail, the DMK Rajya Sabha MP will go to jail. "Let us see what happens in court," she said as she arrived for the hearing earlier this morning.
Kanimozhi has been accused by the CBI of accepting a bribe along with her party man, A Raja, who was Telecom Minister and is now in jail for allegedly designing India's biggest scam birthed during the allocation of spectrum and licenses in 2008.
(Read: Who is Kanimozhi?)In court on Friday, Kanimozhi appeared relaxed and was seen smiling as she talked to her husband and senior leaders of her party like TR Baalu. Not everyone was as collected though - a DMK MP named Adi Shankar fainted in court.
Kanimozhi told NDTV on Thursday that she does not expect "leniency or special treatment because she is a woman." All the people chargesheeted in the 2G scam so far have been denied bail and are in jail, among them the executives of some of India's biggest telecom companies. Mr Jethmalani, however, said that legal guidelines state that "women, old people, children should normally be granted bail." Listing the reasons that his client qualifies for bail, Mr Jethmalani said, "She's a law-abiding citizen, an MP and a woman."
(Watch: 'Prepared for worst,' says Kanimozhi)He also said that Kanimozhi is being targeted because she is the daughter of M Karunanidhi, who heads the DMK and is hoping to be re-elected as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister - the results of the recently-held elections will be declared on May 13.
Ms Kanimozhi is part owner of a TV channel that allegedly became the landing strip for a 214-crore bribe paid by a telecom company to Mr Raja in return for a mobile network license and spectrum. She has argued that she was not an active participant in the company. The CBI has refused this explanation in its chargesheet. In an interview to NDTV on Thursday, Kanimozhi said that she is "prepared for the worst" and will respect the court's decision.
Mr Jethmalani said on Friday, "The allegation is Swan Telecom paid a bribe to Kalaignar TV. Assuming for a moment that it was at Raja's instance that Swan paid Kalaignar TV, what is the offence committed here? She's just a shareholder in the company. Not even a majority shareholder. She just has a 20% equity. The CBI is trying to create prejudice against her." He stressed, "It's only the Board of Directors who control the company and they alone can be held for criminal liability." Mr Jethmalani passed the buck for the financial affairs of Kalaignar TV to its Managing Director, Sharath Kumar. Like Kanimozhi, Mr Kumar owns 20% of the channel and has been chargesheeted by the CBI.
(Read: Will DMK sacrifice Raja to save Kanimozhi?)