Reliance ADA Group company Reliance Telecom on Wednesday told a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court hearing the 2G spectrum scam that Swan Telecom was not its “associate” company, and that it had divested its minor stake-holding of 9.1 per cent even before universal access service (UAS) licences were issued to Swan.
“Reliance Telecom Limited [RTL] had only 9.19 per cent holding in Swan Telecom Private Limited [STPL]. Over 90 per cent was held by Tiger Traders Private Limited [TTPL]. Is it the prosecution's case that [the] TTPL is an associate of RTL? There is not even a suggestion of this,” senior advocate and counsel for RTL Ismail Chagla said.
“All that the charge sheet suggests is that I violated Clause 8 of the UAS licence guidelines and sold an ineligible company. In other words, there was no criminal intent on my part. At worst, I made an application which was ineligible. At worst, I misread Clause 8,” counsel said.
Clause 8 of the UAS licence guidelines states that no single company “either directly or through its associates shall have substantial equity holding in more than one licencee company in the same service area…”
The STPL had applied for UAS licences in 13 circles where Reliance Telecom Limited, which had until then offered CDMA (code vision multiple access) services, had no GSM (global system for mobile communications) spectrum.
