We were not consulted on calling Ambanis, says CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was not consulted before calling Industrialist Anil Ambani and his wife Tina Ambani as prosecution witnesses in the 2G Spectrum case and the decision was taken by Special Public Prosecutor U U lalit, says CBI Director Ranjit Sinha. The position of CBI, which is probing the 2G case, was made known today after both Anil, Chairman of Reliance ADAG, and Tina appeared before a special CBI court here on August 22 and 23 separately.

Appearing before Special CBI judge O P Saini hearing the 2G spectrum case, Anil had on Thursday resiled from his statement made during the probe in February, 2011. In the case of Tina, CBI claimed that she was "deliberately withholding facts" which the judge found was "adverse" to the prosecution. "The additional prosecution witnesses were summoned by the court appointed counsel (U U Lalit) and we were not consulted about them," CBI Director Ranjit Sinha told PTI here. Sinha said this when he was asked whether the stand taken by Amil and Tina was a blow to CBI investigations in the case. Though the CBI Director refused to elaborate anything beyond this, sources in the agency said the evidence was well documented and the statements could have no bearing on the outcome. The 54-year-old corporate baron, during his deposition on August 22, recalled that he had visited CBI in February, 2011 but did not hand over any note to the CBI officer.

"I do not recall" was the stock reply of Anil to most of the questions put up by the prosecution. He also said he does not have the knowledge about various firms -- AAA Consultancy Services, ADAE Ventures , Parrot Consultants, Tiger Traders, Zebra Consultants, Swan Telecom and Swan Consultants - which were alleged to be the associate companies of Reliance ADAG. A day later, Tina denied having any knowledge about the company affairs or about Reliance ADAG's top executives Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair and group's Managing Director Gautam Doshi, who are facing trial.