A key prosecution witness today told a Delhi court that in 2009, G E Vahanvati, as solicitor general, had said Swan Telecom, now an accused in the 2G telecom spectrum case, had “fulfilled all the necessary conditions” for licences.
A K Srivastava, who retired as deputy director general (access services), Department of Telecommunications (DoT), said the department had received complaints against Swan Telecom from two Members of Parliament. These were forwarded by the Prime Minister’s office. He added the complaints were regarding alleged violation of clause 8 of the guidelines on Unified Access Services Licence (UASL) by Swan Telecom.
Srivastava said after receiving the complaints, senior DoT officials, including then telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, along with former telecom minister A Raja had agreed the file should be sent to Vahanvati for his advice. Vahanvati has been a prosecution witness in the case.
“The (Swan Telecom) file was received in the office of chairman, Telecom Commission, who is also secretary (telecom), on March 27, 2009, with the note of the solicitor general dated March 24-25, 2009. “I identify the signature of G E Vahanvati...and his note, running into three pages... wherein he recorded that ‘the file shows there has been a full consideration of all relevant material and the conclusion that the applicant fulfilled all necessary conditions cannot really be faulted’,” he told special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge O P Saini.
According to the CBI, according to clause 8 of UASL guidelines, “No single company or legal person, either directly or through its associates, shall have 10 per cent or more equity holding in more than one licensee company in the same service area, for the same service.” The CBI, in its charge sheet, had said Shahid Balwa-promoted Swan telecom was acting only as a front company. The CBI had said accused firm Reliance Telecom used ineligible firm Swan Telecom as a front company to secure licences and costly radio waves.
In its charge sheet, the agency had said, “The accused people structured the holding of Swan in a manner that only 9.9 per cent equity was held by Reliance Telecom, while 90.1 per cent was shown as held by Tiger Traders, though the entire company was held by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group.”
