Call routing case: Reliance executives appear before court

Top officials of the erstwhile Reliance Infocomm, including Manoj Modi and Shankar Adawal, today appeared before a local court here, where the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) presented the chargesheet in a case of alleged masking of international calls as local ones, causing loss to the exchequer.

The court adjourned the proceedings to September 8 after the six officials sought time to file replies. The CBI has alleged that Reliance Infocomm, the telecom arm of the undivided Reliance empire, had between May and September 2004 allegedly passed off incoming international calls as locals to avoid payment of a fee, called Access Deficit Charge, to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Besides Modi and Adawal, Pankaj Panwar, K R Raja, Akhil Gupta and B D Khurana were present at the court. Gupta and Khurana are no longer with Reliance Industries. Reliance Infocomm is now controlled by Mukesh’s younger brother, Anil, who got it as part of the division of the Reliance empire and it has since been renamed Reliance Communications.

While Modi was a director at Reliance Infocomm, Akhil Gupta was the then CEO, business development. Shankar Adawal was president, corporate affairs, while Pankaj Panwar was head of regulatory. The officials would not speak to journalists after the hearing.