Unitech board fails to find Chandra's replacement

No decision was taken at the board meeting of Unitech Wireless, the joint venture between Norway’s Telenor and Unitech Group, over the new chairman for the board of directors at Unitech Wireless.

The board met today to consider the name of Jayesh Desai, CEO of Unitech Infrastructure, as the interim chairman of the board of directors of Unitech Wireless. His name was forwarded by the Unitech Group to replace Sanjay Chandra after his arrest in the 2G spectrum case last week.

In a statement issued today, Unitech Wireless said, “No significant decision was taken at the board meeting today.”

Telenor Group had yesterday welcomed Unitech’s suggestion to replace Chandra as the chairman. “As earlier stated, Telenor Group has only asked that Sanjay Chandra steps down for as long as the 2G case is in the court,” the statement added.

Following Chandra’s arrest, Telenor had asked Unitech to appoint a substitute so that it did not impact the Indian operations. There is a growing tension between the two partners over funding of Unitech Wireless. The discord had started when Uninor had decided to go for a rights issue but Unitech had challenged the decision and managed to get a stay. Uninor had also challenged this but the matter is still pending in the court.

Unitech was among the nine new companies who were issued mobile licenses in 2008. A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, last year, had said that six newly-incorporated applicant companies of Unitech group had suppressed facts and provided incorrect information to get the new licenses. The department of telecommunications had issued 85 showcause notices to the companies, including Unitech, based on the CAG report as to why their licenses should not be cancelled. The alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum had caused a notional revenue loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government, according to the CAG report.