I am non-executive chairman: Anil Ambani

In his statement today, Ambani referred to himself as non-executive chairman of group several times

Anil Ambani today told a 2G trial court that he is merely the non-executive chairman of the Reliance group, and does not serve as its chairman.

In his statement today, Ambani referred to himself as non-executive chairman of the group several times. The group comprises various companies like Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, Reliance Capital in addition to Reliance Communications.

“This group was created in 2005-06 by demerger of erstwhile Reliance Industries and since then, I am non-executive chairman.

The group represents a large number of companies and I may be a director in few of them,” Ambani said, washing his hands of the 2G scam in which, the company has been associated with Swan Telecom. RCom's interest in Swan, an interest that was later transferred to DB Corp, violated regulatory norms.

Anil Ambani and his wife Tina Ambani were connected to the case after documents showing signatures of both of them, came up in an investigation conducted by the CBI. Two company secretaries and the group's managing director Gautam Doshi were earlier arrested by the 2G scam which came into the fore in 2010.

Ambani in fact said that he does not remember or recall many events related to his companies and various developments. The 54-year-old said that he attends many meetings and the large number of companies, as the reason.

“In these minutes, my family members and myself have been shown to have transferred certain shares to the transferees mentioned therein, but I am unable to recall this event, but if this has been recorded in the minutes, this must be correct. I do not recall the events and I do not prepare the minutes,” he said answering a question on the Swan Telecom issue.

Ambani also said that his limited knowledge of the dual-technology licence norms. “By dual technology, my understanding is that a company can operate with both technologies in the same service area,” he said.

He also said that he cannot recall which of his companies had applied for UAS licence in the recent past. RCom offers both GSM and CDMA services.