Union Minister Sharad Pawar has trashed the corporate lobbyist, Niira Radia's claim to the CBI that he may be controlling DB Realty and may have pursued the issue of spectrum and licence for Swan Telecom with the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja.
Mr. Pawar said: “This is an absolute lie and foolish statement. Her claim is absolutely irresponsible and a total lie and one should not give too much importance to her statement.
“I have no financial interest in this company. DB Realty and I have no relations at all. I have no financial, not one ‘naya paisa' interest in that company,” the Minister said.
He said he has known DB Realty's Vinod Goenka's father K.M. Goenka for the past 35 years and he had set up a milk processing unit in Baramati about 20 years back. “We, all farmers, are helping him in getting good quality milk. We have a relationship. There are no two opinions about that, but we have no involvement or association with the telecom company,” he said.
Pointing out that Ms. Radia had stated that she had no proof to back the charge, Mr. Pawar said he had no talk with the corporate lobbyist or anyone else with regard to grant of licence for spectrum use.
“I am looking after agriculture of the country, not telecom,” he said.
Swan Telecom is one of the companies that allegedly benefited from 2G allocation scam. It was part of Mumbai-based DB Realty, which has since then become Etisalat DB.
