Anil Ambani in trouble

New Delhi: For the first time, a CBI court has underlined the ‘role’ of the Anil Ambani-led ADAG group of companies in the 2G scam in which DoT officials, in an alleged conspiracy with certain private persons, awarded Unified Access Licences (UAS) at throwaway prices to some companies.

Rejecting the bail petitions of Swan Telecom's promoter Shahid Usman Balwa and RK Chandolia, private secretary of former telecom minister A Raja, Special judge OP Saini observed: "It has come on record that Swan Telecom was not eligible for licence on the date of application as Tigers Traders Ltd was holding its majority shares, which was indirectly funded by ADAG group of companies...Reliance Telecom had already been granted licence in some circles and as such, Swan Telecom, its associate company, was not eligible for licence...it has also come on record while opening the bank account of Swan Telecom, an official of a group company of ADAG stated in the bank that Swan was their associate company."
"It has also come in evidence that board minutes of Giraffe Consultancies Services Ltd were forged to show that its shares stood transferred on February 25, 2007 to persons belonging to DB Group/relatives of Balwa. Giraffe Consultancies had funded Tigers Traders, which was used by ADAG to subscribe majority shares of Swan Telecom," said the court in a detailed 17-page order.
This is the first instance of the CBI court going on record to state the alleged role of ADAG. Anil Ambani has already been questioned by the agency in this regard.

While Raja, Chandolia and another arrested bureaucrat Siddharth Behura were charged under Section 120 B of IPC and 13(1) (d), 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, the CBI had earlier added fresh charges under S 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 468 (forging documents) of IPC against Balwa.
Noting that the Ministry of Telecommunication bent several norms to provide Unified Access Licences (UAS) to Swan Telecom, the court observed that the company was not eligible on the date of application and the record was subsequently manipulated by DoT officials to show it eligible at the cost of other applicants.
Citing a Delhi HC judgment to reject the bail petitions, Saini said: "If a person knows that even after misappropriating huge public funds, he can come out on bail after spending a few months in jal, and thereafter can continue to enjoy the ill-gotten wealth, obtained by illegal means, that would only encourage many others to commit similar crimes."
Source: The Indian Express