New Delhi, Apr 15: Swan Telecom Private Ltd was nothing but a front company of Reliance ADA Group, promoted by Anil Ambani, aimed to “circumvent” the policy which debarred the existing players to seek 2G licenses, CBI today told a Delhi court.
“I did not advance the argument on merits. One of the lawyers said there was nothing against the three accused. I say that Swan was nothing but a front company of Reliance ADAG,” special prosecutor U U Lalit said.
“This was constituted with an aim to circumvent the then policy which did not allow the existing telecom operators to apply for the UAS licenses,” Lalit told special CBI Judge O P Saini.
His remarks came in response to the plea of a defence counsel that he had a very good case of discharge on merits.
Detailing the role of Reliance officials, CBI charged Gautam Doshi, Group Managing Director of ADAG, in conspiracy with Surendra Piapara and Hari Nair, had played an active role in structuring and funding of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd and other holding/investing companies.
“Doshi was also on the Board of Reliance Telecom Ltd and took all the important decisions regarding transfer of funds to Tiger Traders/Swan Telecom through various holding group companies,” Lalit said.
The agency said Ashish Karekar, one of the witnesses and employees of Reliance Telecom, said that in March 2006, Nair had instructed him to incorporate four companies along with other employees of Reliance Group including Paresh Rathore and Dinesh Modi.
“Thereafter, companies namely Parrot Consultants Pvt Ltd, Swan Consultants Pvt Ltd, Zebra Consultants Pvt Ltd and Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd were formed. A group of employees were then shown as the directors of the companies,” CBI said. Karekar had left the board of Tiger Traders on May 18, 2006, on Nair's instructions, it said.
Lalit submitted that during investigation, one of the employees of HDFC Bank, Uday Sahasrabuddhe had said that two officials (Anand Subramaniam and Varadrajan Srinivasan) of Reliance Communication Ltd gave a letter in March, 2007 in the bank declaring that “Swan Telecom was a group company of Reliance Communications.”
Hari Nair had also signed the certified copy of board resolution of Swan Telecom on March 1, 2007, CBI said, adding investigation, however, revealed that no such resolution of Swan Telecom was passed on that day. PTI
