Loop officials to be quizzed for their meeting with diplomat

The agency had sought details of alleged transactions of nearly dozen companies in Mauritius through its Letters Rogatory, official sources said. They said attempts of officials to get details of LRs from the High Commissioner have raised eyebrows and the officials will soon be questioned by the agency.

The company is being probed by investigating agencies trying to find out the money trail and the beneficiaries. Official sources said High Commissioner M Ganapathi has informed the External Affairs Ministry about the meeting which in turn communicated to the CBI the questions raised by company officials during the meeting.

During the interaction, the Loop officials apprised him about operations of the company in Mauritius, they said. Loop Telecom refused to comment about the developments.
The LRs had said that "allegations have also surfaced that some public servants of the Government of India have stakes in Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd (Formerly Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd) and Loop Telecom through Mauritius based companies."

It had sought collection of documents from the Office and Registrar of Companies, documents and information to be collected from banks besides examining person in the concerned firms and Registrar of companies, the officials of these companies in Mauritius.

India had recently sent a reminder to Mauritius for its cooperation in the 2G spectrum scam probe seeking information about some companies and its directors under the Mutual legal Assistance Treaty.

After sending the LR, the CBI had sent a reminder requesting the Mauritius Government to give details about certain transactions of 12 companies, including Etisalat Mauritius Ltd, Delphi Investment Ltd and Decan Asian Infrastructure.

The Comptroller and Auditor General in its report has said that the Loop Telecom was not eligible for grant of Unified Access Service license on the day they submitted their application which is September 3, 2007.

"The company had changed the main object clauses in their MOA/AOA so as to include the telecom sector in their MOA/AOA but these alterations were registered by the ROC on 28 September 2007 only. Thus they were also not eligible for grant of UAS license on the date of submission of  their application in September 2007," it said.

The auditor also said that the company made a patently false claim of the paid up capital of Rs 130.65 crore through their company secretary V V Chakradeo while submitting applications for grant of UAS licenses for 21 circles. It said the certificate given by the Company at the time of submission of applications for UAS licenses was "fictitious" submitted to the DoT with a malafide intention to secure the licenses.