The Group President of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG), Mr A.N. Sethuraman, on Monday told a Special Court that it “appeared” that Mr Hari Nair, Senior Vice-President of the firm, had certified certain documents with respect to Swan Telecom's applications for new licences. Mr Nair is one of the accused in the case, while Mr Sethuraman is a prosecution witness.
Mr Sethuraman identified before the Special Judge Mr O.P. Saini the signatures of Mr Nair who, as the Company Secretary of Swan Telecom, had allegedly signed its documents. But he also said he cannot say if the documents were original or a photocopy.
However, Mr Sethuraman said that, “I had submitted applications for 15 circles for UAS licences on behalf of Swan Telecom in March 2007.”
He also said, “I have been shown one letter dated March 6, 2007, addressed to DoT, Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi. The same bears my signature. Through this letter, I had intimated DoT regarding change of name of company, that is, from Swan Capital Pvt Ltd to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd.”
It was alleged that Swan Telecom, an accused in the case, was ‘ineligible' to apply for the 2G spectrum and was “just a mask” for Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL), an R-ADAG firm. RTL is also an accused in the case.
During cross-examination, Mr Sethuraman said, “The instructions regarding keeping the applications (for UAS licences) ready must have been received by me from Anand Bhatt (one of the Directors of Swan Telecom) before March 2, 2007. On getting the applications ready, I contacted Anand Bhatt and asked for further instructions and he told me to hold on for a couple of days as certain formalities were to be completed.”
“He called me again on March 5, 2007, and told me to go ahead and submit the applications,” he said, adding that applications for Assam and North-East circle were withdrawn on March 6 on the instructions from Mr Bhatt.
The trail will resume on Tuesday.