Midway through recording of the evidence of industrialist Anil Ambani, who appeared before a special court in the 2G spectrum case here on Thursday, Special Public Prosecutor U.U. Lalit sought permission to cross-examine him. For, Mr. Lalit said, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group chairman “is resiling from his previous statement.”
Mr. Lalit sought to cross-examine Mr. Ambani when he said, in reply to a query, “I visited the CBI office in connection with this case. However, at that time, I did not hand over any note to the CBI officer.”
Replying to questions by Special Judge O.P. Saini, Mr. Ambani denied that he was under any threat, pressure or coercion, and said he was aware of the consequences of making a false statement.
Later, during cross-examination, Mr. Ambani denied that Swan Telecom was a shell company of his group. He also denied that it was with his knowledge that this company had applied for the Unified Access Services Licence for the J&K service area in 2007. He said he could not recall if Reliance Telecom had made an investment to the extent of 9.9 per cent in equity shares in Swan Telecom.
Mr. Ambani’s wife Tina is scheduled to record her statement, also as prosecution witness, on Friday.
