Dubai-based mogul in CBI net on 2G scam

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation yesterday questioned Dubai-based industrialist IP Khaitan for his alleged interests in Loop Telecom, one of the beneficiaries of the scam-tinted 2G spectrum allocations. Khaitan, who arrived at the CBI headquarters last morning, was grilled by the sleuths for about eight hours in connection with ownership patterns in Loop Telecom, agency sources said. The agency is probing whether Loop Telecom was the front for Essar Group, which has family links with the Khaitans, in getting the unified access licences for second generation telecom spectrum. Political and business establishments in India have been rocked by the multi-billion dollar telecoms corruption scandal in Asia’s third-largest economy, with a number of bureaucrats, politicians and corporate executives under investigation by the country’s premium agency. About 14 individuals and three companies have been charged of rigging a 2007/08 grant of lucrative telecoms licences. The scandal may have cost state coffers as much as $39b in lost revenue, a sum equivalent to India’s defence budget. In Khaitan’s case, CBI sleuths are looking into the alleged link between Essar and Santa Trading, reportedly owned by the Khaitans, which floated Loop Telecom and financial exchanges that allegedly took place between the two companies, sources said. The CBI is trying to get details of Delphi, Apex Fund Services, Maavi Investment Fund , Palab Investments, Capital Global, Black Lion, Inditel Holding, Etisalat, Deccan Asian Infrastructure, Aid-tel Holding, Kaif Investment and Electro Investments. In a related development, the Delhi High Court yesterday rejected bail to five company executives charged in the scandal. Vinod Goenka, Chairman of Etisalat’s India partner DB Group; Sanjay Chandra, MD of Telenor’s India partner Unitech; and three executives from Reliance ADA Group have been held in jail since April 20, 2011, after a lower court had denied them bail. All accused have denied any wrongdoing. The executives can now appeal to the Supreme Court. While rejecting their bail plea, the Delhi High Court judge said the accused were highly influential persons who could try to influence witnesses, especially those in their companies, if released on bail. “Taking into account the gravity of the accusation against the petitioners, a reasonable possibility of their interfering with the process of justice by tampering with the evidence, I do not deem it appropriate to release the petitioners on bail,” he said in his 34-page long order. Police have already arrested former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja, a member of government ally DMK party, and Kanimozhi, the lawmaker daughter of the DMK chief, straining ties between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress party and its second-biggest partner in the ruling coalition. The telecoms scandal is the largest of the several that have emerged in Singh’s second term.