Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot got the licence and start-up spectrum for second generation (2G) telecom services through forgery, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa alleged in a special court here Tuesday.
“Dhoot flashed the ID card of Rajkumar Dhoot who is his brother and member of parliament and also member of some telecom committee in parliament,” Balwa’s counsel Majid Memon said in the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.
“Because of this he was given preference and entered the Department of Telecom (DoT) first and hence got the license,” he told the special court presided over by Judge O.P. Saini.
Asking why the CBI was not probing Dhoot’s role, he said: “He cheated the DoT posing as Rajkumar Dhoot, then why is the CBI not probing this matter… why is it being ignored?”He Memon also denied the CBI’s allegation that Balwa was an insider.
“If I assume I was an insider then why has Swan not got Haryana and Rajasthan circles, which are the most lucrative? Delhi is not a lucrative circle. Where is the question of I being a blue-eyed baby of a minister (former telecom minister A. Raja)?”
Balwa also spoke and said he was the one who submitted the Letter of Intent first as he was “agile”.
“I ran that day, took the staircase when all the other people got stuck in the elevator. A major scuffle took place outside the room that day. You cannot blame me as I am agile and submitted the LoI in time,” said Balwa.
Balwa had Monday said the CBI was selectively targeting some firms in the 2G spectrum case. He also asked how could he have cost the exchequer when the prime minister and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal have said that there was no loss in the 2G case.
Videocon was among the nine new companies that got 2G licences in 2008. The CBI has charged 14 accused and three companies of causing a loss of Rs.30,984 crore to the exchequer by selling the scarce resource, also called radio frequency that helps carry telecom signals, to private players cheap.
Besides Balwa, the accused include DMK MP Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV’s chief Sharad Kumar, Cineyug’s Karim Morani, his cousin Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal, who are directors of Kusegaon, and Unitech Wireless’s Sanjay Chandra.
