SC to hear plea of bringing Ambani, Ruia, Tata in 2G scam probe

The Supreme Court will hear tomorrow the plea of bringing corporate czars like Reliance Telecom Chairman Anil Ambani, Essar's CEO Prashant Ruia and the Tatas' within the ambit of the probe into 2G spectrum allocation scam.

A bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly will also decide whether a high-power panel should be appointed to supervise CBI's probe into the case.

The court had in the last hearing on April 27 agreed to hear the application of an NGO which submitted CBI is not catching "big fish" who are the real beneficiaries of the scam.

Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), the NGO which brought the 2G spectrum case to the Supreme Court, alleged Shahid Usman Balwa-promoted Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom were the front companies for RCom and Essar Group respectively while Tatas' benefitted for funding Tamil Nadu-based NGO whose Director was DMK MP Kanimozhi.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, said RCom, which was inelligible for the 2G licence, had financed Swan Telecom and its chairman Anil Ambani, who has 50% stake in the company, has not been touched by CBI despite being the real beneficiary.

"The real beneficiary is Anil Ambani, who holds majority stake and is Chairman of the group companies. CBI has tried to shield him and has only chargesheeted the employees," he had contended.

The NGO had said investigation has gone cold over the alleged involvement of Prashant Ruia and Tatas in the scam.

"Petitioners have learnt that while CBI might be following the case of Loop Telecom which made huge benefits, the investigation has gone cold over the involvement of Prashant Ruia and his family members who, through a complex web of transactions, set up Loop Telecom to defraud and cheat the government for award of 2G spectrum and licenses," it had said.

It also raised the issue of Tata Teleservice which benefitted in grant of Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) for its dual technology as Tatas' had funded the NGO run by Kanimozhi but CBI was not moving against them.