Unitech Group firms 'fraudulently' obtained 2G spectrum licences: CBI

The Unitech Group firms “fraudulently” obtained the 2G spectrum licences, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a special court here on Tuesday.

The group of companies were not eligible for the telecom licences as per the rules but they concealed it from the department of telecommunication by “misrepresenting” crucial facts and managed to secure radio waves, the agency told the Special CBI Court, advancing its final arguments on the multi-crore 2G spectrum allocation scam.

According to the CBI, as many as eight Unitech Group firms had applied for the 2G spectrum licences. After obtaining the licences, all of them merged into a single entity— Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Private Limited.“The Unitech Group firms knowingly and fraudulently misrepresented facts in their application forms,” Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover told Special CBI Judge O P Saini, referring to evidences on record.

The firms applied for the radio waves even as they had mentioned “realty” in the object clause of their constitution, he charged, adding that these companies concealed “crucial facts” about them to ensure that their applications were not rejected by the DoT.
The CBI’s final arguments remained inconclusive. The court will take up further hearing of the arguments of the case on Thursday.

Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Private Limited, which had secured 22 licences (which was later cancelled by the Supreme Court along with 100 more licences) is one of the accused in the case besides Reliance ADAG and Swan Telecom Private Limited.

Managing Director of Unitech Limited Sanjay Chandra is also facing trial in the case along with other accused including former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and DMK patriarch’s wife Dayalu Ammal.