‘Swan, a front company of Reliance ADAG'

The Central Bureau of Investigation in a reply filed to the bail applications moved by 2G spectrum scam accused senior Reliance ADA Group officials Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair on Friday said that it was the Group's managing director Mr. Doshi's “brain child” to use Swan Telecom as a “front company” of Reliance ADA Group for applying for Unified Access Service (UAS) licences for disguising the actual ownership and control.

This was done to circumvent the Department of Telecommunication's UAS licence guidelines dated December 14, 2005, that prohibited a company from having more than 10 per cent equity in more than one licensee company for the same service area. The guidelines also required a submission of a certificate from the applicant company's secretary along with the UAS licence application.

The CBI's reply said that “Hari Nair in collusion with Surendra Pipara and Gautam Doshi submitted false certificates to DoT as Company Secretary regarding shareholding pattern of Swan Telecom falsely declaring that Reliance Telecom had only minority stake (9.9 per cent) in Swan.”

The agency said the accused persons “instead of withdrawing fraudulent application in the name of Swan Telecom which was not eligible at all, allowed the transfer of control of Swan to Dynamix Balwa group and thus enabled perpetuating an illegality.”

The CBI also said the trio also “facilitated the new management of Swan Telecom to get UAS licences on the basis of applications filed by the former management.” The CBI charged that the transfer of management of Swan Telecom to the DB Group and the sale of equity held by it to Delphi Investments, Mauritius, had “enabled Reliance Telecom to earn a profit of around Rs. 10 crore which was otherwise not possible if they had withdrawn the applications.”

The CBI's reply said that Mr. Doshi in conspiracy with Mr. Pipara and Mr. Nair played an active role in structuring and funding of Swan Telecom, Tiger Traders and other holding/investing companies which were involved in covering up the ownership of Swan Telecom.