Anil Ambani quizzed on stakes in Swan Telecom by PAC

Anil Ambani quizzed on stakes in Swan Telecom by PAC

Reliance ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani on Tuesday faced a Parliamentary committee which quizzed him on his company's stakes in Swan Telecom and other aspects related to the 2G spectrum allocation to which he responded "freely" but evaded replies on some contending the matter was sub-judice.

Ambani was questioned by members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for nearly two hours a day after Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata and corporate lobbyist Niira Radia had deposed before it in connection with alleged 2G spectrum scam.

Top executives of Etisalat DB, Unitech Wireless and S-Tel, who have been accused by the CAG of getting undue benefits in the spectrum allocations, were also grilled on Tuesday by the 22-member committee headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi.

Ambani was asked about investments in Swan Telecom, an entity the government auditor had claimed was a "front company" of Reliance Communications. He was also asked about investments in Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd which also had stakes in Swan.

Swan bought mobile telephony licences for 13 circles for USD 340 million and later sold a 45 per cent stake to Dubai-based Etisalat for USD 900 million, taking its valuation to USD two billion without a single subscriber.

"Anil Ambani spoke freely but at some places he sought immunity saying that the matter was sub-judice. On some other questions, he told us that he would send written replies in a day or two after referring to relevant documents," Joshi told reporters in New Delhi.

Joshi said the CAG had found that all the four companies had committed irregularities in the bidding process and should not have got the licenses to operate mobile services.

He said some replies of the companies were not in consonance with the information the Committee had gathered from the Department of Telecom and all the companies had committed similar mistakes.

A common point was that launching telecom services was not in the memorandum of association (MoA) of either Swan Telecom or Unitech.

In both cases, the key area of interest was real estate and Telecom was added to the MoA just a few days before the grant of licenses.

Joshi said the executives from Telenor (Asia) spoke freely and did not appear to conceal anything.

Atul Jhamb, CEO of Etisalat DB Telecom, and Vinod Goenka, Director on Board, Sanjay Chandra, CEO of Unitech Wireless, Charles Woodward, Director, Telenor (Asia) Pvt. Ltd were also grilled by the PAC, so was Srinivasan, a top official with S-Tel.

Unitech and Telenor operate mobile telephone services under the brand Uninor.

Ambani, Goenka and Chandra sought immunity from the Committee pleading not to answer questions that may affect the court cases against their companies.