Swan Telecom was denied UAS licenses for JK: DoT official

New Delhi, Apr 17: Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, accused of being a proxy for Reliance ADAG, was denied Unified Access Service (UAS) licences for Jammu and Kashmir, a senior DoT official has testified before the CBI.

Swan, which was allegedly favoured by former Telecom Minister A Raja in getting UAS licenses for 13 circles despite being an ineligible firm, was not so lucky in the case of Jammu and Kashmir, A K Srivastava, Deputy Director General (Access Service) of DoT, told the agency during the probe.

Srivastava, arrayed as the first prosecution witness in the 2G scam case, said the firm was denied the licenses as its object clause, on the date it applied for them for the state, did not mention "telecom" as one of its business areas.

The statement, which is part of charge sheet running into 80,000 pages, said Swan had applied for the UAS licenses in 14 service areas including Jammu and Kashmir in 2007.

"On January 10, 2008, letters of intent were issued to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd for 13 service areas and rejection of the UAS licenses applications for Jammu and Kashmir service area and this was also informed to the company," Srivastava said in his statement recorded on March 9.

He further said Swan Telecom had applied for new UAS licenses in Jammu and Kashmir service area on January 23, 2007, and subsequently, on March 2, 2007, it submitted 13 more applications for the licences.

Swan, which had also sought the licenses for Assam and northeast service area, later withdrew its applications on March 6, 2007, Srivastava said.

The proposal to grant licenses in 13 service areas to Swan was approved by A Raja on January 9, 2008, Srivastava said.

Swan and its promoter Shahid Usman Balwa have been named along with Raja, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, Raja''s former personal secretary R K Chandolia, other corporate honchos and two companies -- Unitech Wireless Ltd and Reliance Telecom Ltd -- as accused in the charge sheet.

PTI