1st of a series of expose on 2G scam
By: Ravi Sinha
The CBI investigation into the 2G spectrum scam is learnt to have zeroed on how lobbyist Nira Radia and former telecom minister A. Raja circumvented all the norms to benefit the real estate company Unitech. The loss caused to the public exchequer and corresponding gain to the realty company is not confined to mere arbitrary granting of second-generation mobile telephony licenses. The close link of Raja and Radia into the real estate company actually led to the debt ridden company getting fresh funds with license mortgaged and the government standing as a guarantor.
The Supreme Court asking the CBI to look into all bank loans given to telecom licensees has brought to the investigation the fact that the company mortgaged the same license to raise funds. The government stood as a guarantor to ensure loans worth Rs 2000-2500 crore by this licensee in May this year. Telecom bureaucrat who signed one of these agreements has already been questioned by the CBI. The loans were secured through tripartite agreement between the company, a consortium of banks and the government. The bureaucrat, a former official of the access services wing of the telecom department signed the tripartite loan agreement on behalf of the government.
The CBI’s suspicion that A. Raja and Nira Radia benefitted from Unitech by awarding 2G spectrum and license is based on the seized documents and also from its questioning of Radia, Raja and several bureaucrats. The documents clearly suggest as to how the debt ridden Unitech mortgaged its telecom license to get the funds needed to start operations and the government stood guarantee to its loans with a consortium of banks. A copy of this tripartite loan agreement is in possession of Track2Realty.
Unitech is incorporated as a company into real estate business and had no experience or expertise in the telecom sector till it got the license. Unitech was awarded telecom license and 2G spectrum in 2008 as a real estate firm, but changed its name a few months after it got the license. Though Radia’s PR firm Vaishnavi Corporate Communications maintains that it has serviced no client in telecom other than Tata Tele Services, the firm stands out as the official PR agency for the Unitech’s core business into real estate.
