Another lobbyist in focus for ‘enabling’ telecom deal

Nira Radia was not the only high-profile corporate lobbyist allegedly influencing decisions in the power circuit. Investigating agencies on the trail of senior home ministry official Ravi Inder Singh, who is suspected to have leaked sensitive information to corporate houses, have zeroed in on another lobbyist — Deepak Talwar.

Talwar was instrumental in getting all the clearances for telecom company Telecordia from various agencies and departments despite objections on the grounds of security, investigations have revealed. The agencies are probing the lobbyist’s role not only in the Telecordia case but also in a number of other cases in the aviation and other sectors.

Highly-placed sources say that Singh, a West Bengal cadre IAS officer posted as director in the Union home ministry, gave clearance to the telecom company despite objections from intelligence agencies such as IB and RAW as it had operations in Pakistan.

The lobbyist allegedly won over the IAS officer through Vinit Kumar, a Kolkata businessman. It is alleged that Talwar provided whatever was sought by Vinit Kumar at the behest of Singh, who is now suspended. Vinit Kumar, CMD of Temptation Foods Pvt Ltd, is in police custody till November 30.

Investigators have intercepted around 12,000 telephone conversations of Singh in the last six weeks, where he used code words like ‘software’ for call girls and ‘hardware’ for accommodation. Singh was using three mobile phone numbers, procured by using fictitious identity.

According to sources, Singh played a major role in giving security clearance to Telecordia’s mobile number portability application and justified it, saying the company’s Indian partner, Deepak Talwar and Consultants (the joint venture with Telecordia was called MNP Interconnection), had the required expertise in telecom services and security would not be compromised.

MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India Pvt Ltd — a joint venture between Telecordia and India’s Deepak Talwar Consultants Pvt Ltd (74-26% share value) — is one of only two companies that have been licenced to implement MNP. 

The CEO and CFO shall be Indians, the home ministry had mandated.

Talwar could not be contacted by DNA despite several attempts. A senior executive of MNS operations Anuj Kapur, who was tracked by DNA, explained that he was not handling the issue and said,

“You better contact Ashok Sapra of MITS.” However, Sapra said he would contact DNA later as he was busy in a meeting. But the call never came and he never took the call.

Meanwhile, an officer with the home ministry has maintained that guidelines were fudged to help Telecordia. The guidelines say that a company can provide no equipment and services to India or to any Indian associate company if it was providing or having any connection with Pakistan.

Deepak Talwar Associates Constultants Private Ltd has several other companies like IDFS Tradings private ltd, with services like in-flight retail, warehousing & logistics, airline amenities and airport duty-free shops. IDFS has a joint venture with Aer Rianta for duty-free shopping in the new terminal at Delhi International Airport.

Talwar’s company also has a joint venture with SSP, the international group that operates restaurants, bars, cafes, food courts and convenience stores in airports, rail stations, leisure venues and onboard trains across Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. SSP Catering India Pvt Ltd won food & beverage concessions at the Delhi International Airport and operations commenced in June 2008 at Hyderabad and in T3 in Delhi.

“So far, we have found three bank accounts in Ravi Inder’s and his wife’s name. Several lakhs of rupees were deposited in the accounts in the past six to eight months. We have learnt that Vinit had deposited all these money at the behest of Telcordia. Efforts are on to link Talwar with the money trail,” said a senior officer, close to the investigation.

During the course of the probe, the Delhi police found a bank account in the name of Singh’s wife with Rs15 lakh balance. Also, two more bank accounts in Singh’s name, with Rs 42 lakh and Rs 27 lakh balance, have been found. “Money flow to these bank accounts started from March this year, two months after Ravi Inder joined as director (internal security) in home ministry. Moreover, Singh had been staying in a guest house in Greater Kailash at a rent of Rs50,000, accounted for by a private firm.,’’ said an investigating officer. The Rs21 lakh was transferred to an account in Bank of Maharashtra, opened in the name of Singh’s wife, using the guest house address.

— With inputs from Mayank Aggarwal