AN Subramaniam said he could not recall under whose advice he had issued a letter for opening an account with HDFC Bank for Swan Telecom.
Lending a new direction to the much-awaited trial in the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam, Reliance Capital’s AN Subramaniam retracted from his earlier statement to the CBI and said he could not recall under whose advice he had issued a letter for opening an account with HDFC Bank for Swan Telecom.
This statement by first witness could be a set back for the investigating agency, which wanted to establish the link between Reliance Telecom and Swan Telecom.
As per his earlier statement, provided by the CBI in March, Subramaniam has purportedly said he had issued a letter for opening a bank account for Swan Telecom on the basis of telephonic instructions from Hari Nair, an official of reliance and an accused in the scam.
“I signed documents Ex Pw 1/A and 1/B as there was a board resolution in our favour, including myself. On seeing letter Ex Pw 1/B, I do not recollect as to under whose instructions I signed this letter,” Subramaniam said on Friday before the special CBI judge OP Saini. The documents mentioned by him are exhibits that pertain to the letters sent to the Fort branch of HDFC Bank in Mumbai for opening a bank account for Swan Telecom.
The court winded up recording statement of Subramaniam, assistant vice-president of Reliance Capital Ltd, as a prosecution witness in the midst of noises and objections raised by Raja.
Subramaniam said while he did not have any occasion to work with Reliance Group’s Doshi, Pipara and Nair, he was not aware if Anil Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Group, was also chairman of Swan Telecom.
The court had also summoned chief regulatory officer of Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd Vinod Kumar Budhiraja —for examination.
There was also some drama when the accused said they were unable to hear what was going on and demanded that the trial proceedings be shifted to a larger venue, rather than the cramped and crowded court room allocated to this case. AN Sethuraman, group president of Reliance Capital on his part, said he did know the three accused from the Reliance Group “as they are my colleagues but never worked with them closely” and also Swan Telecom. His cross-examination will continue Monday.
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