2G scam: CBI finds Reliance-Swan links?

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) may be linked to Swan Telecom which has been implicated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 2G spectrum scandal by the agency, media reports said on Saturday.

Sources within the CBI revealed that its earlier assertions that Swan Telecom could possibly be a front for Anil Ambani?s Reliance group have been bolstered by new information from the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Mumbai, news network NDTV reported.

Even though the RoC documents reportedly vindicated Reliance for not owning more than 10 percent stake in Swan, they did refer to ‘other transactions between ADAG and Swan’, suggesting a deeper rabbit hole.

CBI raids on Shahid Balwa?s DB Reality, which floated Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB), have also resulted in the unearthing of documents linking the the company with Reliance, the report said.

Balwa, the former Managing Director of DB Group, that allegedly paid kickbacks to ex-telecoms minister A Raja and his party in lieu of favours during the 2008 spectrum allocation process has already been arrested in the ongoing probe.

In a letter, Balwa had said that Swan had agreed to use Reliance?s telecoms infrastructure as per a January 2007 agreement, which also offered Reliance to continue holding its 9.9 percent stake in his company.

In February, ADAG issued a statement rebutting the charge and claiming that none of company?s subsidiaries, affiliates or employee held a ?even a single share? in Swan Telecom when the 2G spectrum licenses were granted.

The government’s auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which had released a mammoth Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss estimate from the spectrum swindle allegedly masterminded by Raja, had earlier also reported that Swan was indeed a front for Reliance.

Meanwhile in an interview to NDTV, Kanimozhi the daughter of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief Karunanidhi, who herself has been questioned by the CBI over the ongoing probe, on Saturday said she still believed A Raja was innocent.

Denying all charges levelled against her and her party as ?perception-based? and not true at all, Kanimozhi, whose television network purportedly served as a front for receiving the scam kickbacks, said she would stand by A Raja as long as the DMK stood behind him.

The CBI last week told the Supreme Court that Raja, now in jail, will be indicted by Mar 31 in the 2G spectrum scam as the federal agency had found that the DMK leader had forged documents to favour companies during spectrum allocation.