2G trial: ADAG's Sethuraman feels the heat on day 2

The second day of the 2G trial began in a slightly calmer, less crowded courtroom as the second prosecution witness — Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) president AN Sethuraman— continued his deposition that began on Friday at a special CBI court in Delhi.

Dressed in a light-pink striped shirt, the 59-year-old nephew of Reliance Industries’ V Balasubramanium, whose association with Reliance dates back to the early days of Dhirubhai Ambani, was shown a trove of documents by the CBI counsel. These largely comprised applications for Unified Access Service (UAS) licences submitted by Sethuraman for 15 circles on behalf of Swan Telecom in March 2007.

When with each application, Sethuraman was shown the attached memorandum of association and article of association of Swan Telecom certified by its company secretary Hari Nair (one of three top officials of the Reliance ADA Group who are accused in the 2G case), “The signature appears to be of Sh. Hari Nair…” was Sethuraman’s repeated statement.

A comedown from his assertion — “I identify signature of Sh. Hari Nair…”- made at many points in his statement recorded by the CBI earlier. The CBI statement, recorded under section 161 of the criminal procedure code, is not signed by Sethuraman and he is not bound by it.

The army of defence lawyers who represent 17 accused, including top officials of three companies— Swan Telecom (P) Limited, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Limited and Reliance Telecom Limited — kept a hawk’s eye on the every document that was shown to Sethuraman and put on record.

During his examination by the CBI counsel, Sethuraman said,“I signed all these applications (referring to application for UAS licenses for 15 circles submitted by him on behalf of Swan Telecom in March 2007) on the telephonic instructions of Anand Bhatt, who introduced himself as one of the directors of M/s Swan Telecom (P) Limited….He also asked me to keep everything ready, that is, all the applications.”

An attempt by the CBI counsel to clarify on this statement by Sethuraman was met with a barrage of objections by the defence lawyers on the ground that it amounted to prosecution ‘questioning’ its own witness. They further demanded that the prosecution first declare the witness ‘hostile’ before proceeding to cross-examine him.

Similar objections were raised by the defence lawyers when the CBI counsel had asked the first prosecution witness Anand Subramaniam, assistant vice-president of Reliance Capital who was deposed on Friday, on whether he recollected his statement to the CBI after his statements in court didn’t concur.

The charge on the three top Reliance ADAG officials Hari Nair, Gautam Doshi and Surendra Pipara says they “structured/created net worth of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd out of funds arranged from Reliance Telecom Pvt Ltd., or its associates, for applying to the department of telecom (DoT) for UAS licenses in 13 circles, where M/s Reliance Telecom Ltd.. had no GSM spectrum, in a manner that its association with  M/s Reliance Telecom Ltd may not be detected, so that DoT could not reject its applications on the basis of Clause 8 of the UASL Guidelines dated 14.12.2005…”

“…and when pursuant to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) recommendations dated 28.08.2007, M/s Reliance Communications Ltd. got the GSM spectrum under the Dual Technology policy, you - accused Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara - deliberately did not withdraw the applications for UAS licenses and instead transferred the control of M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd., to you accused Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka and in this manner, you knowingly transferred a company which was otherwise ineligible for grant of UAS license on the date of application, being an associate of M/s Reliance Telecom Limited, to you accused Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka belonging to Dynamix Balwa (DB) group….”

The most high-profile accused in the 2G case, A Raja, former telecom minister, continued to boycott the trial by refusing to cross-examine the second prosecution witness on the grounds that investigations were still on.

DMK MP Kanimozhi, the only woman accused in the case, looked relaxed in court while she chatted with her husband. At the very top of a stack of magazines that seemed to have been brought for her was a news magazine that featured her on the cover fighting her way through a crowd outside the Delhi court.

Kanimozhi was also seen leafing through a book titled Mystic Musings, a book that A Raja also seemed to be interested in. He was seen flipping through it as well. He was joined by his wife in court.

Swan Telecom Promoter Shahid Balwa spent the better part of his day in court taking down notes from books, as he sat with his wife and other members of his family.

Time permitted cross-examination by defence lawyers of only one of the accused. Court was adjourned till Tuesday.