Unitech offered to sell telecom arm to RIL: Radia

Real Estate major Unitech had offered to sell its telecom arm to Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia told the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) during investigation into the 2G spectrum scam.

She said that the offer in this regard was made by Sanjay Chandra, MD of Unitech group of companies, who has been named as an accused in the case, as the telecom company was facing economic downturn.

"During the call Sanjay Chandra requested me, given their current crisis, would Mukesh Ambani be interested in buying them out of their telecom venture because of their downturn," Radia said in her statement which was submitted to the court as part of the charge sheet filed on April 2.

The lobbyist said that she intimated Chandra that Mukesh was not interested in telecom and "even for datacom for Dhoot (of Videocon) and Nahata (Mahendra of HFCL, which also got the 2G licence), he (Mukesh) said no".

Even after Chandra persisted that she approach Mukesh, Radia said that she refused.