2G: Court asks CBI to file law min report on telcos

A Delhi court on Monday directed CBI to file the law ministry report, which said a company should have more than 10% equity in another to be termed as an associate. HT reports.

A Delhi court on Monday directed CBI to file the law ministry report, which said a company should have more than 10% equity in another to be termed as an associate. The 2G-scam accused Reliance Telecom and Swan Telecom had taken this plea stating that it never violated the said conditions.

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Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) and Swan Telecom Private Ltd (STPL), an alleged beneficiary of the scam, have been taking the defence that they were not “associate” firms as RTL’s stake in STPL was below 10 per cent, and they never breached the guidelines for the Unified Access Service (UAS) licences.

The law ministry in its report said “an applicant become a licensee company only on the date when the applicant signs the licence agreement with the government and not before that date”.

The counsels of Unitech Wireless, Reliance Telecom and Swan Telecom had emphasised on the above point stating that their respective companies have not flouted the guidelines.

Essar Telecom, which allegedly created Loop Telecom as its front company to get licences, has taken the same plea.

Special CBI judge OP Saini, who is hearing the case, said,” It is ordered that CBI would place a copy of the report received by it from the Ministry of Law and Justice through the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) on record on September 21, the next date of hearing.”

Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who is appearing for Swan, had filed an application to include the report as part of the trial.

CBI, on the other hand, has been alleging that STPL was an associate firm of RTL created to circumvent the then guidelines of DoT, which debarred existing CDMA players from venturing into GSM segment.

RTL later passed on the control of STPL to promoter and co-accused Shahid Usman Balwa after the DoT allowed it to avail the facility of dual technology, the agency said.