Unitech boss summoned by CBI

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 Unitech boss, however, said he was speaking to officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) “to personally clarify certain issues” they had raised and the company was “fully co-operating”.

Police have alleged that a unit of Unitech benefited from the sale at knock-down rates of second-generation mobile phone licences in 2008, which the national auditor says cost the exchequer up to $40 billion in lost revenues. The alleged fraud has also led to the arrest of former telecoms minister A. Raja, two former aides and Shahid Balwa, managing director of one of India’s biggest real estate firms DB Realty, and vice-chairman of Etisalat DB, the Indian joint telecoms venture between Abu Dhabi’s Etisalat and DB Group.

The CBI has also named India’s Swan Telecom – now known as Etisalat DB – as allegedly having benefited from the licence sale. Chandra said in a statement that his firm, India’s second-largest listed real estate company, operated within government guidelines and laws.”Unitech has co-operated with all investigating agencies from the very beginning, as we have nothing to hide,” he said.

Unitech has a mobile telecoms joint venture in India with Norway’s Telenor. The CBI has alleged that when the government was allocating 2G spectrum for mobile phone networks, the telecoms minister and some aides showed “undue favoritism” and is investigating the possibility of kickbacks.

Some licence recipients made large profits by selling ownership stakes to foreign companies before rolling out their mobile services. Unitech put out a statement Monday, describing reports that Chandra had been summoned by the CBI as “completely baseless”.

India’s Reliance ADA Group, which owns Reliance Communications, said at the weekend the CBI had examined a number of its officials as part of the investigation. All the individuals and companies being probed have denied any wrongdoing.