Balwa charges Tatas with 2G kickback

Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa on Tuesday dragged the Tatas and Videocon Group's Venugopal Dhoot in the 2G controversy.

Balwa's counsel Majeed Memon alleged that Tatas had given Rs 20 crore in charity to a medical college cum hospital run by former telecom minister A Raja's trusts in his constituency, Perambalur. “Tatas acknowledged that it was done as a special case since they don't make a grant of this magnitude to an external person. What was this special case?” Memon asked.

The Tata group had recently denied that it had granted crores of rupees to a hospital in Perambalur. “Tata Trusts had not made any donation to the project,” the group had said.

Memon said there were irregularities at the stage of fulfilling the conditions of the letter of intent and Dhoot had flashed the identity card of his brother Raj Kumar Dhoot, a member of Parliament, for easy access to the Department of Telecom. Memon alleged that Dhoot was in touch with DoT officials and jumped the queue to get the licence.

Presenting his arguments for the second day before Special CBI Judge O P Saini, Memon said Swan Telecom was declared eligible by the corporate affairs ministry and therefore there was no reason for Balwa to conspire with Raja.

“Ministry of corporate affairs has warned the CBI that it was following a course that needs to be vetted by experts and if the agency had doubts about its report, it must approach the DoT. CBI has not even done that.”

Balwa said he had no role in the allotment of 2G spectrum to his company at the cost of Tatas or anyone else. He denied charges of having conspired with Raja to get the licence in the Delhi circle and said the decision was made by the Department of Telecommunication. He further added Tatas had delayed their application themselves by obtaining the No Dues Certificate (NDC) later than required.

Memon further said: “It's a question of level playing field. You cannot blame a player who is more agile than others in a football field.” Vinod Goenka, managing director, DB Realty, will start presenting his case before the court tomorrow.