A Special Court has asked the CBI to handover to Mr Subramanian Swamy by Thursday the certified copy of a file regarding ‘stake sale' of Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) to Etisalat and Telenor, respectively.
Mr Swamy, who is the Janata Party President, said the file was “very important and necessary” for him to prosecute Mr Chidambaram before the Special Court for the latter's alleged role in the 2G scam. Mr Chidambaram was the Finance Minister when the 2G spectrum was allocated in 2008 during the tenure of Mr A. Raja as Telecom Minister.
Mr Swamy alleged that the CBI had so far not given him the certified copy of the file even though it has been a week since the court had passed an order asking the CBI to hand it over to him.
He also claimed that the “share dilution” of the companies was done “bypassing the three-year lock-in period norm”. He said the CBI had seized the file during its probe in the case in October 2009.
Earlier when the allegations were first raised, the operators had taken a view that the deal with foreign players was not a case of share dilution because fresh equity was issued. They have also claimed that they are in compliance with the three-year lock-in period because the promoters' shares have not been sold.
Meanwhile, Mr Swamy alleged that it was Mr Chidambaram who had told Mr Raja that he can allow Swan and Unitech to ‘dilute their shares' to Etisalat and Telenor, respectively. He added that the Home Ministry had raised some security concerns regarding Etisalat and Telenor.