CBI widens probe in 2G telecom licences scam

Turning up the heat in the 2G licence proble, the CBI has widened its investigations into the 2G scam and in process has questioned top officials of Unitech, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications, S-Tel and Loop Telecom, the alleged beneficiaries of Unified Access Service licences during A Raja's tenure as telecom minister.

The CBI yesterday quizzed Vinod Goenka aligned with Swan Telecom director Shahid Balwa by bringing his company Dynamix to promote DB Realty. Goenka is said to have close ties to NCP leadership and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

The 2G spectrum was allotted to 9 companies including

Swan Telecom, S-Tel, Unitech, Tata Teleservices, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Reliance Telecom, Loop Mobile, Vodafone Essar, and Allianz Infratech. Swan and Allianz Infratech merged with DB Group which in turn aligned with Gulf based Etisalat group and became Etisalat-DB.

The CBI has questioned besides, a number of senior executives of R-Com and S-Tel, Sanjay Chandra, Unitech managing director, Sandip Basu, Loop Mobile chief executive officer two senior officials of Tata - Sanjay Ubale and Kishore Saltore.

According to Chandra, Unitech had nothing to hide and the company's officers had provided all records for examination.