2G: Share transfer to foreign firm revealed
The CBI probe into the 2G spectrum scam has revealed that Shahid Balwas’ Swan Telecom transferred its 107,91,000 shares (held by another telecom operator of India) to a Mauritius-based company on December 5, 2007 after filing applications for the Unified Access Service (UAS) licences, in violation of several norms.
Investigation by the CBI has established that a private telecom company, which held 107,91,000 shares in Swan (now Etisalat-DB Telecom Private Ltd), transferred its all shares to Mauritius-based Delphi Investment Ltd. after two months of filing applications for the UAS licences.
“Further the company (Swan) allotted 11,29,94,228 shares to an another Mauritius based ‘Etisalat Mauritius Ltd’ on December 17, 2008. The company was allotted UAS licences for 13 circles by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on January 10, 2008. Transfer of 11,29,94,228 shares to a Mauritius-based company within a year of getting UAS licences, was also a violation of the guidelines issued by the DoT,” sources said.
Sources further said, “The agency has also collected sufficient evidence against former telecom minister A. Raja and certain DoT officials who did not take action against the erring telecom operators who were granted UAS licences. Swan was allowed to offload its shares even before the roll out of services. The DoT officials remained a mute spectator and did not initiate action against such operators.”
There are also allegations that some public servants of the government of India may have stakes in Etisalat-DB Telecom Private Ltd. and Loop Telecom Limited, sources said.
There are reports that certain top bureaucrats have allegedly invested money in both telecom companies through some Mauritius-based companies, sources said adding it is being probed and the agency has also sent a “Letter of Request” to the authority concerned in Mauritius in this regard.
Investigation regarding Loop Telecom Ltd. has revealed that it was incorporated on March 12, 1997 as OnChannel Software Private Limited.
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