CBI for Rcom execs turning approver in 2G spectrum case

Counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday told the Supreme Court that if the three Reliance Telecom executives now in jail for their alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam turned approver, it would help clear who the real beneficiaries of the transactions were.

The executives are Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair. The Tata Group and Videocon's Datacom got an almost clean chit during investigation of the case.

During their arguments in the trial court, all the three executives have said they were only employees and acted only in that capacity. CBI counsel K K Venugopal said the three had changed their stand between the trial court and the high court. They had, he said, taken responsibility for their decisions earlier. He said the three were not in charge of disbursal of funds in order to get the spectrum licence.

In its first chargesheet, CBI had alleged the three officials ensured that Swan Telecom was set up with Reliance funding, and then sold their company's stake to Mauritius-based Delphi Investment. Venugopal said CBI had found that 10.79 million equity shares were sold from Swan, allegedly front company of Reliance Telecom, to Delphi for a mere Rs 15 per share.

The three executives have been charged with criminal conspiracy and cheating. CBI has also given an application in the trial court to add an additional charge of criminal breach of trust, read with criminal conspiracy. If the new charge is imposed, the extent of punishment could go up to life imprisonment; on the present charges, it is a maximum, if convicted, of seven years in jail.

A Reliance Telecom spokesperson said, “None of the three Reliance executives charge-sheeted by CBI have at any stage expressed any desire to become approvers.” He added that neither Reliance Telecom nor the promoters were beneficiaries of any telecom licences issued in January 2008.

Earlier, there was speculation that R K Chandolia, former personal secretary to jailed ex-telecom minister A Raja, could turn an approver, after he’d said he was “a mere servant following his master's orders and had nothing to do with policy decisions”.

There are 17 accused in the case so far, including three companies -- Unitech Wireless, Reliance Telecom and Swan Telecom.