Shares in developer DB Realty hit a record low on Monday after its Managing Director Shahid Balwa, embroiled in a widening telecom corruption investigation, resigned from his position.
DB Realty Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company on March 05, 2011 has noted and accepted the resignations of Mr. Shahid Balwa, as Managing Director and also as Director of the Company with effect from February 09, 2011 in view of his preoccupation relating to certain investigations.
With only $400-500 million of foreign funds flowed into the Indian real estate sector in 2009-10, the outlook ahead seems to be far from being rosy.
The CBI has questioned chairman of Anant Raj Group, a Delhi-based real estate company, Amit Sarin, and Idea Cellular CEO Sanjeev Aga in connection with its probe into the 2G spectrum allotment scam.
In a change of stance, the state home department has decided to look into its own move to shift out the Yerawada police station on the Pune-Ahmednagar road and allow commercial exploitation of the three-acre plot on which it stands.
Sanjay Chandra, managing director of Unitech Ltd has been summoned by investigators to answer questions over a suspected telecoms fraud that robbed the government of billions of dollars.
THE CBI interrogation of DB Realty’s MD, Shahid Balwa, in connection with the 2G spectrum scam has thrown up the possibility of the real estate magnate having links with India’s most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim. According to senior CBI officials, Dawood invested large sums of money in Balwa’s firm, which was used by him to finance many of his business deals.
The Enforcement Directorate has asked the intelligence officers in different Indian Missions to check the money trail in the 2G spectrum scam. Special Director, ED has sent out communiqués to Cyprus, Mauritius, British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Isle of Man, Singapore, Dubai, and Tripoli (Libya, Norway).
In the immediate aftermath of the bribes for loan scam involving LIC Housing Finance, the Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in conjunction with Dept of Financial Services asked for a complete monitoring of all the companies mentioned in the CBI case filed. All public sector banks, financial institutions and state owned insurance companies have been asked to examine their exposure to the 21 companies named by CBI in the housing loan scam, and give a subsequent compliance report.
The CBI investigation into the 2G spectrum scam is learnt to have zeroed on how lobbyist Nira Radia and former telecom minister A Raja circumvented all the norms to benefit the real estate company Unitech. The loss caused to the public exchequer and corresponding gain to the realty company is not confined to mere arbitrary granting of second-generation mobile telephony licenses.