2G: made no personal gain, only infused capital, says Chandra

Defending himself against the charge that Unitech Wireless brought licence at a lesser price and then sold its share to Telenor to earn profits, Chandra told a Delhi court that he had never sold the shares and merely diluted 67.25 per cent equity to bring FDI for establishing telecom business and "there was no legal transgression in receiving equity from a foreign company."

Chandra's counsel R S Cheema told Special CBI Judge O P Saini that Telenor, major shares of which are held by Norwegian government, had as such made a total investment of Rs 6,135 crore for an equity stake of 67.25 per cent in Unitech 13 months after it received the pan-India telecom licence.

"The company had received approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and the FIPB for issuance of shares upto 74 per cent to Telenor," he said. He told the court that the investments from Telenor came in six tranches. It invested Rs 1250 crore in March 2009 in all Unitech Wireless holdings. Rs 1370 crore came on May 19, 2009 followed by rs 1493 crores and Rs 2022 crores on January 7 and February 10, 2010 respectively.