2G case: Court summons Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal, Essar's Ravi Ruia among others

A Delhi court on Tuesday summoned Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia, and Asim Ghosh, former CEO of Vodafone Essar, in the additional spectrum allocation case. All three have been named as accused in the case. Shares in Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecommunication carrier, fell as much as 7.6 per cent after the news broke, before cutting some losses to close 4.74 per cent lower at Rs 293.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. "We would like to reiterate that Bharti Airtel and its promoters have always practised the highest standards of corporate governance and accordingly view the charge sheet as an attempt to tarnish its high reputation. We are disappointed with the charge sheet against a company which is one of the few Indian MNCs (multinational companies), with a reputation for good governance standards," Bharti said in a statement. "The CBI investigated this matter threadbare and unsurprisingly, no explanation was sought from Mr Ravi Ruia or anybody else from Essar Group in view of Essar Group's admittedly minority position in the company...we are consulting our legal experts and exploring all legal options and will in due course take up appropriate legal proceedings to challenge this order," Essar said in a statement. The 2G Special Court in Patiala House took cognisance of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charge sheet filed against Bharti Airtel and others for alleged irregularities in the allocation of additional spectrum during the NDA regime, and has summoned the directors to be present on April 11. Mr. Mittal has been summoned as the chairman cum managing director of Bharti Cellular, Mr. Ghosh as the managing director of Hutchison Max and Mr. Ruia as a director of Sterling Cellular. "They represent the directing mind and will of each company," special CBI Judge O.P. Saini said in his order. "The acts of the companies are to be attributed and imputed to them. Consequently, I find enough material on record to proceed against them." The CBI had on December 21 last year filed a charge sheet in which former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms -- Bharti Cellular Ltd, Hutchison Max Pvt Ltd (now known as Vodafone India Ltd) and Sterling Cellular Ltd (now known as Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd) -- have been named as accused. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India have previously denied any wrongdoing. In the 57-page charge sheet, the CBI has booked all the accused for the offences of criminal conspiracy (120-B) of the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The former telecom secretary, who has been charged with misusing his office to confer additional spectrum in sweetheart deals to telecom giants, has also been summoned. Telcos have to pay a percentage of their revenue to the government as spectrum charges and by charging them a lower amount than that recommended by a Department of Telecommunications committee, the government lost revenue. The CBI says the country lost nearly Rs. 846 crore as a result. The CBI charge sheet claims that the additional spectrum was timed to help Bharti Airtel IPO and was given at a lower revenue share formula. The summons to the executives are a significant development given that the court earlier this month had pulled up the CBI for only "blaming" government servants and not naming any company officials in connection with the charge sheet. "In a conspiracy, there must be two parties. You (CBI) are blaming only the government servants. Why not private persons? Who did the conspiracy with the government servants?" Judge Saini had asked. On being quizzed by the judge, CBI prosecutor K K Goyal had said, "We could not find out anybody's name. We tried to find out who are the persons who instigated this, but we could not find out. We tried our best."   Source: NDTV