Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Reliance Group executive A.N. Sethuraman Tuesday told a special court hearing the second generation (2G) spectrum case that he had no knowledge about the setting up of Swan Capital, nor had he said he knew a company named Swan Telecom.

“I also do not have any knowledge about the details of memorandum of association of this company. In my presence, Hari Nair neither attested nor issued any certificate regarding equity of Swan Capital or whether it was wholly owned by Indian entities,” he said.

Nair, also an executive of Reliance Group, is among the 14 individuals co-accused in the 2G spectrum case, along with his colleagues Gautam Doshi and Serendra Pipara, as well as former telecom minister A. Raja.

They were charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) April 2. The probe agency alleges that Swan Telecom was a front company of Reliance Telecom — a charge that has been vehemently denied by the company.

“I did not tell the CBI that Surendra Pipara, Hari Nair and Gautam Doshi were known to me as colleagues,” Sethuraman said, appearing as a prosecution witness before the CBI Special Court, presided over by Judge O.P. Saini.

He was answering questions from both the prosecution and the defence based on what CBI said was his earlier statement during the probe purportedly recorded under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc).

According to the CBI, Sethuraman had earlier told the agency that he had identified the signatures of Nair on equity shareholding structure of Swan Capital. Tuesday, however, he said he had no knowledge regarding this.

“I had not seen this document before my statement to the CBI. It was shown to me for the first time by the CBI. Since ‘Hari Nair’ is typed therein, I assumed that it must have been signed by Hari Nair,” Sethuraman said.

He will have to appear again Wednesday.

Earlier in the day the special court directed the CBI to provide to Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy, within two days, a certified copy of a file pertaining to allocation of 2G spectrum in 2007-2008.

Swamy asked Judge Saini as to why the probe agency was denying him the file if it was in court records. “A week before this, the court had passed an order directing CBI to give the certified copy of the file to me. But CBI has still not handed over the file.”

CBI counsel A.K. Singh then assured the court the file will be provided by Thursday.

The file, according to Swamy, was seized by the agency two years ago. “These documents, with the endorsements and signatures of (Home Minister and then finance minister) P. Chidambaram, prove his complicity in the instant scam,” he had alleged.