NEW DELHI (TIP): Bharti group chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal and Essar promoter Ravi Ruia on April 11 appeared before a special CBI court in response to the summons issued by the court in the case pertaining to allocation of additional 2G spectrum during the NDA regime. Mittal’s counsel placed before special CBI judge O P Saini the Supreme Court order postponing proceedings in the case till April 16.
Besides Mittal and Ruia, former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh, who was summoned by the special CBI judge, also appeared in pursuance to the summons issued against him. The court, after going through the apex court’s order on separate petitions filed by Mittal and Ruia, listed the matter on April 16 for further proceedings. The apex court will hear their pleas on April 15. The special court had on March 19 summoned Mittal, Ruia, who was then a director in one of the accused companies Sterling Cellular Ltd, and Asim Ghosh, the then managing director of Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd. Their names were not mentioned in the chargesheet filed by CBI on December 21 last year in the case.
During the proceedings, the court was told that the summons against Canada-based NRI Asim Ghosh had “remained unserved”. Besides the three, the court had also summoned Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms — Bharti Cellular Ltd, Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd (now known as Vodafone India Ltd) and Sterling Cellular Ltd (now known as Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd). The three telecom firms were represented by their counsel in the court on April 11. Ruia had moved the apex court a day after it had postponed till April 16 the proceedings in the special CBI court against Mittal. When CBI had opposed the plea of Mittal in the Supreme Court saying evidence had been found against him during investigation, the apex court questioned the probe agency as to why he was not named in the chargesheet.