| Corporate | | | 2G scam: Loop promoters, Essar brass under CBI scanner | | | TT Correspondent | | 10 May 2011 | | |   The CBI has asked Essar Group CEO Prashant Ruia , Vikas Saraf the director in charge of strategy and planning and M&A Vikash Saraf and IP Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan, promoters of Santa Trading Pvt . Ltd. (STPL), the Mauritius-based company which floated Loop Telecom, to appear before it for questioning.
The investigating agency is working on the theory that Loop Telecom was nothing but an "associate'' of the Essar group. Kiran Khaitan, it may be mentioned, is the sister of Shashi and Ravi Ruia , the founders of Essar.
Saraf will appear before the investigating agency on Tuesday, and Prashant Ruia will follow suit a day later. The Khaitans, according to official sources, will show up in the CBI headquarters later in the week.
CBI sources claim that Loop Telecom was ineligible to apply for the UAS licences, but nonetheless received licenses in as many as 21 circles in January, 2008. Soon after, an MP and an NGO complained to the then telecom minister, A Raja, who is incarcerated in Tihar jail, alleging "illegality" in awarding the licences to Loop Telecom.
The issue was subsequently examined by the ministry of corporate affairs, which unearthed various irregularities. The MCA found the Essar group had substantial financial control and influence over Loop Telecom. Essar, which already had a foothold in telecom sector, had thus violated guidelines prohibiting telecom companies from holding more than 10% in two telecom companies in the same circle.
The MCA report was scrutinised by Santokh Singh , then legal advisor to the telecom ministry. "The trio, acting in collusion, rejected its recommendations, rather than issuing a show-cause notice to Loop Telecom,'' the sources maintained.
The CBI also alleges that STPL's net-worth was negligible before the infusion of funds into the company by the Ruias. The decision to pump money company was taken to enable STPL to buy mobile licences for four circles -Mumbai, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala-which were put on sale by BPL promoter Rajeev Chandrashekhar and his father-in-law in 2005. |
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