As part of its ongoing probe into the alleged 2G spectrum scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) continued to turn the heat on top corporate honchos. The agency on Monday questioned Videocon group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot and his brother and Rajya Sabha member Rajkumar Dhoot in connection with the allocation of spectrum in 2007-08.
They were called to the CBI headquarters and quizzed for over seven hours and confronted with the documents of changing their share capital from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 150 crore, official sources said.
The sources said that statement of their Company Secretary, submitted to the Department of Telecom, claiming change in the share capital, was also shown to them and asked to explain the minutes of the meeting of an extra-ordinary general body of the company held on August 27, 2007.
Videocon was allocated a start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz in all circles except Delhi.
The CBI has so far questioned top brass of various telecom companies, including Reliance Infocom Chairman Anil Ambani, Essar CEO Prashant Ruia and Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra.
In its report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had said that Datacom Solutions, which later changed to Videocon Telecommunications, while submitting its application for 22 licences on August 28, 2007, had “made a false claim of the paid-up capital of Rs 150 crore through company secretary although documents attached with indicated that the authorised share capital of the company as Rs 1.00 lakh only.’’
Since the requirement of the requisite amount of the paid -up capital was an important eligibility criterion, their applications ought to have been rejected forthwith. However, on November 27, 2007, the company suo-motu submitted a so-called “correct’’ version of documents as on August 28, 2007, stating that they had submitted an old version of documents inadvertently along with the application.
