2G scam: CBI, ED team to leave for Mauritius on Sunday

A joint team of CBI and Enforcement Directorate will leave for Mauritius on May 22 to track the trail of money invested in various telecom companies involved in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

While the CBI is looking for share patterns of nearly a dozen companies after it was found that all of them had a common address of a building in Mauritian capital Port Louis, the ED is looking for various entities that routed money using the country's financial channels.

As many as 10 different entities named in connection with the 2G scam have a common address; The Les Cascades Building on the Edith Cavell Street in Port Louis.

The Indian team would be meeting various officials of the Finance Ministry, Registrar of Companies (RoC) and Mauritius offshore banking authority to know the details of the companies which had opened bank accounts and using this mode to send money to various telecom companies in India.

Mauritius-based front companies of foreign investors are often utilised as a route to avoid paying taxes in India. Investors utilise loopholes in the bilateral agreement on double taxation between the two countries to channel funds.

The investigators will look into details of the meeting of senior Loop Telecom officials had with Indian High Commissioner to Mauritius Madhusudan Ganapati.

Ganapati had informed the External Affairs Ministry that the two private sector telecom officials were enquiring about the Letters Rogatory sent by the CBI and ED seeking details about the transactions made by them.

It is also alleged that another firm, Swan Telecom, was being controlled by another group through a company Delphi Investments in Mauritius.

The CBI, through Letters Rogatory to Mauritius, has sought details of stakeholders and beneficiaries in Delphi Investments.

The CBI is probing whether Delphi Investments to which Reliance Telecommunication had sold its 9.9 per cent stake in Swan Telecom was a front for the conglomerate, sources said.