Anil Ambani, Prashant Ruia, Tatas untouched by CBI: NGO to SC

The NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), told the apex court that Shahid Usman Balwa-promoted Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom were the front companies for RCom and Essar Group respectively while Tatas' benifited 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 per cent stake in the company, has been untouched by CBI despite being the real benificiary.

"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 told a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly.

A short note of the submission placed before the bench said investigation has gone cold over the involvement of Prashant Ruia 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," the submission placed before the bench said.

He 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.

"Petitioners have now learnt that CBI is sitting over a crucial lead wherein telecom companies which got 2G licenses made payments to a Tamil cultural NGO of which  Kanimozhi (accused) is a director. The said NGO received payments from telecom companies, including Tata, just before the licenses were awarded on January 10, 2008," the CPIL said.

While pointing loopholes in CBI chargesheets relating to the alleged involvement of RCom's chairman, the NGO said only his three employees have been targetted.

"These people are just professional employees of the ADA group and are not the beneficiaries of this scam," the CPIL said.

"At the time of application for UAS license, Rcom had about 9.9% equity in Swan while the remaining 90.1% equity was held by Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd, in which three persons (employees of R-ADAG) were the Directors, fronting for Reliance ADAG.

"The entire money was provided by R-ADAG. CBI has stated investigation regarding Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd (TTPL) has also disclosed that the source of funds to raise equity and also to subscribe shares of other companies ha come from group companies of Reliance ADA group," the CPIL said.

It said CBI has wrongly stated that Group MD Gautam Doshi, arrested along with Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair (both Sr Vice Presidents), took all the commercial decisions.