CBI''s decision not to charge sheet Anil Ambani, Chairman of ADAG Group, in the 2G spectrum scam was today questioned in the Supreme Court by an NGO which alleged that he was making attempts to cover up his involvement by influencing his arrested employees.

"The three persons charge sheeted are just the professional employees of the ADAG and are not the beneficiaries of this scam. The real beneficiary is Anil Ambani, who hold majority stake and is Chairman of the group companies.

"There is no possibility of an employee of the company having taken such an important decision of massive investments running into hundreds of crores of rupees," said an affidavit filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL).

CBI, which has filed two charge sheets in the 2G scam, has stated that the entire company of Swan Telecom, alleged to be the front company of Reliane Telecom, was held by ADAG companies through the funds raised by Anil Ambani controlled Reliance.

The affidavit said Gautam Doshi , Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair, who are all employees of Anil Ambani controlled Reliance in furtherance of their intention to cheat, created Swan Telecom out of funds arranged from Reliance Telecom for applying for licenses in 13 circles where Reliance Telecom did not have GSM spectrum.

They have been charge sheeted and are in judicial custody in Tihar Jail.

"But Ambani has not been charge-sheeted. ADAG has reportedly claimed that these actions were done without the knowledge of Ambani. If this was true then he should have sacked the three charge sheeted employees," the NGO said adding that instead he visited them and reportedly assured legal assistance.

The CPIL said, "he (Ambani) would have claimed to be a victim of their actions, who used Rs 1000 crore of the company money to create Swan, because of which his company has been charge-sheeted, its reputation tarnished and its stock has drastically fell."
"Instead, Ambani visits Tihar Jail to meet his three employees and assures them of all legal assistance. This was clearly an attempt to influence them so that they don't allege his involvement," it claimed.

The NGO in its application also accused DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran , who today resigned as Textile Minister and Pradeep Baijal , the then Chairperson of TRAI of abusing their official position.

"Apart from abusing his position as Telecom Minister to benefit Maxis which later invested in his family owned Sun TV, Maran also abused his position as telecom minister to divert hundreds of telephone lines of BSNL to Sun TV which were ostensibly provided to Maran for his official use.

" CBI has been investigating this case from Sept 2007 itself, but no action has been taken and apparently the investigation is still continuing," the application said while annexing a CBI report of September 11, 2007.

The NGO claimed that as minister he prevailed upon the Prime Minister to take spectrum pricing out of purview of the cabinet which later triggered the 2G scam.

"This was adversely commented upon by the CAG and Justice Shivraj Patil in their reports," it said

Referring to Baijal, the CPIL said under the TRAI Act, Chairperson TRAI has no authority whatsoever to clarify statutory recommendations through a personal letter, that too based on a telephonic conversation, written after GoM approval, Cabinet decision and issuance of UASL guidelines 2003.

"Yet Baijal as TRAI Chairperson did precisely that through his letter dated November 14, 2003. The said letter was illegal and on its basis 26 licenses were issued, 12 of which went to Tatas.

"CAG & Justice Patil have adversely commented on this action. A detailed complaint on this made by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP, to the CBI," the CPIL said adding that after his retirement, he joined corporate lobbyist Niira Radia's PR firm which had Tatas as one of its major client.

The CPIL in its application made reference of the CBI charge sheets which details the complex web of structuring that was done by the Reliance employees to hide the fact that Swan was fully a Reliance company.