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| CBI |
In a letter to Cabinet Secretary AK Seth, secretary in the MCA DK Mittal has said the federal investigating agency should not have made "any comments in its status report against the ministry without consulting it, particularly when the ministry has been extremely cooperative and understandable of the importance and urgency of the issue".
In a clear message to the CBI that interpretation of company law was the prerogative of the corporate affairs ministry, the letter, dated July 11, also said "communication gap" between it and the investigating agency was because the CBI had been obtaining "information/clarification from the DoT". It also pointed out that the Companies Act was a "highly complex legal document" which could "best be opined by either the ministry or the Law Department".
The letter comes in the wake of a status report filed by the CBI in the Supreme Court on July 6, which appears to charge the MCA with trying to protect Loop Telecom, a company being probed in the 2G scam . The investigating agency is pursuing a theory that the Essar Group, owned by the Ruias, holds more than 10% in Loop. If true, this would mean the Essar Group has violated telecom sector guidelines preventing it from holding more than 10% in two service providers.
Essar strongly denies these allegations, and its stance is backed by the MCA.
While the status report is not in public domain, KK Venugopal, the lawyer representing the CBI, read out excerpts in the court.
Media reports said the CBI had criticised the MCA's "apparent contradictions" in various reports related to the 2G scam. These reports, which have not been denied, said the corporate affairs ministry's "flip-flops" regarding its reports on Swan and Loop Telecom could hurt the agency's chances when the accused went on trial.
In the status report, the federal investigating agency had questioned the clean chit given to Loop Telecom by the ministry stating that it used a different yardstick from the one it used to say Swan Telecom, another company caught in the scam, was an associate of the Reliance ADA Group.
The MCA, however, has also told the Cabinet Secretary that it received a communication in the afternoon of July 6 from the CBI asking for certain "clarifications" so that the agency could file a status report with the SC.
"By the time the letter was received in the MCA, the status report was already filed by the CBI in the SC," Mittal told the cabinet secretary. The ministry also said it has assiduously refrained from making any comments in this case and, in fact, "respecting the investigations" has even assisted the CBI by placing a senior officer with the agency in the 2G spectrum scam.
The SC, according to media accounts of the July 6 proceedings, told the CBI that in a scam of this magnitude, there is bound to be "attempts to sidetrack investigations".
It's not clear if it was referring to the MCA finding in favour of Loop.
A senior CBI official said he was not aware of the MCA's July 11 letter.
Mittal declined comment on the matter. But a senior official in the MCA told ET on the condition of anonymity that the MCA did not volunteer its opinion, it was sought by the DoT.
