2G: Shahid Balwa resigns from DB Group

DB Group Managing Director Shaid Balwa, who was arrested on Feb 8 as part of the ongoing probe into the 2G scam by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has resigned from the company.

The company, that has arms in realty, hospitality and telecoms, said that board had accepted his resignation.

Balwa?s DB Realty had floated Swan Telecom, which was allegedly favoured by former telecoms minister A Raja during the 2008 2G spectrum auction.

The CBI suspects that in 2008, when the government was allocating 2G spectrum for mobile phone networks, Raja might have twisted the rules to benefit a few companies – especially Swan and Unitech.

Swan and Unitech sold equity to foreign companies much before they began the rollout of their services.

The giant profits they made seemed to underscore the point that spectrum had been sold far too cheaply by the government.

Swan paid Rs. 1,537 crore and sold 45 per cent stake to UAE-based Etisalat for a profit of Rs 4, 730 crore.

The DB group’s telecom arm, earlier known as Swan Telecom, is now known as Etisalat-DB.