July 22, 2011 / 10:40 IST
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday claimed that Swan Telecom is a front company of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group while arguing in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. Beginning the argument in the case in a special CBI court in New Delhi, the investigating agency charged former telecom minister A Raja and his secretary RK Chandolia with favouring Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless.
The CBI also claimed that Spice Telecom's licence eligibility was better than Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless. Raja also reportedly delayed Tata Telecom's application for dual technology.
Arguing before the court of Special CBI Judge OP Saini the agency claimed that offences in 2G scam have been in five broad areas - cut off dates, first come first serve, dual technology, eligibility norms and cheating the Government of revenue.
The chargesheet filed by the CBI in the 2G scam case runs into over 80,000 pages.
Earlier, the court allowed the Income Tax department to interrogate six accused, including Raja, arrested for their alleged involvement in the 2G scam, in judicial custody itself.
Judge Saini allowed the application moved by the Income Tax department seeking permission to quiz Raja, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka and three Reliance ADAG officials - Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.
The Income Tax department moved three separate applications seeking interrogation of Raja in connection with his family income, senior standing counsel for the IT department Sanjeev Rajpal said.
Balwa will be quizzed by the Income Tax team from Mumbai regarding his connection with Etisalat DB. Meanwhile, the third application was moved on behalf of the Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Mumbai to quiz Balwa, Goenka and three ADAG officials. "Our applications have been allowed by the court and these six persons will be interrogated from July 27 to July 29," Rajpal said.
The court had on July 18 also allowed the CBI to interrogate afresh Raja, former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura and Gautam Doshi in the lock up of Patiala House court complex for one hour each.
The court had allowed the agency's application that in the interest of the case, it required to interrogate key accused afresh for the ongoing investigation.
The CBI, in its first charge sheet on April 2, had accused Raja, and eight other persons including Balwa, Goenka, Doshi, Nair and Pipara as well as three companies of causing a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer.
Charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and corruption have been levelled against the six, who are currently lodged in Tihar Jail along with other eight accused in the case including DMK MP Kanimozhi.
