Widening its probe in the 2G scam, the CBI on Tuesday grilled several alleged beneficiaries of the arbitrary allocation of spectrum by former telecom minister A Raja.
Besides Vinod Goenka, CEO of DB Realty, the agency questioned Sanjay Chandra, MD of Unitech Wireless, and top honchos of Loop Telecom, STel and Tata Realty.
Unitech was allotted UAS licenses for 22 circles for Rs1,658 crore. It offloaded 60% of its shares to Telenor of Norway for Rs6,100 core.
“STel’s chief finance officer (CFO) Arun Mandhana and chief regulatory officer Rupender Sikka were called. Sandeep Basu, CEO of Loop Telecom, was also questioned,’’ said a CBI official.
Kishore Salvatore and Sanjay Ubale, CFO and MD of Tata Realty and Infrastructures Ltd (TRIL) respectively, were also quizzed.
Meanwhile, Unitech has come out with an official statement on Sanjay Chandra’s questioning by the CBI. “Sanjay Chandra came to the CBI to clarify certain issues personally…Our officers have provided all records for examination and clarified all issues raised by them (CBI) from time to time.’’
However, sources in the CBI claim that Chandra is being grilled on the circumstances in which his company was given UAS licenses at 2001 prices.
According to officials privy to the investigation, a loan of around Rs1,600 crore was advanced by TRIL to Unitech. It was facilitated by corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, who also handles the public relation work of all Tata companies.
``The officials from TRIL were asked to explain their company’s investments in Unitech. Chandra will be confronted with the information,’’ sources said.
