Deposing as a CBI witness, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is a former Chairman and CEO of BPL Communications Ltd, said that Ruia had told him that he was negotiating with him to acquire the stake on behalf of other investors.
In its charge sheet, the CBI had alleged that promoters of Essar Group, "in league" with Khaitans had "designed a scheme" to acquire BPL Communications Ltd through Santa Trading Pvt Ltd and other Mauritius based foreign companies, to circumvent the restrictive clause 1.3 of the Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS) licences.
As per clause 1.3 of the CMTS licence conditions, Essar Group companies, directly or through associates, could not acquire more than 10 per cent equity in operating companies.
"In this background during a business conference, Ravi Ruia approached me and suggested that he could acquire my stake in BPL Communications Limited," Chandrasekhar told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.
"Since Ravi Ruia confirmed that he was acting on behalf of some other investors and that he would assume responsibility of settling the litigation and other government and regulatory approvals, I introduced my financial and legal advisors and internal team to his team to commence the negotiations," he said.
He said that in 2004, he had decided to sell his stake in BPL Communications Ltd as the company was engaged in a series of litigation.
He told the court that they had received proposal from various companies but it could not fructify due to the ongoing litigation after which Ruia had approached him for acquiring the stake.
Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and Loop Telecom promoters I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan and Essar Group Director (Strategy and Planning) Vikash Saraf is facing trial in the case. (More)