The Central Bureau of Investigation will examine four top management functionaries of Tata group companies, including the then Tata Sons chief Ratan Tata, who were named in the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) report on the Tata-Realty-Unitech land deal, said top agency sources.
About two months ago, the agency registered a preliminary inquiry into the SFIO findings. “Those named in the report have not been summoned so far. However, they will have to be examined as part of the probe to ascertain whether there were any irregularities,” said a senior CBI official.
The 2012 SFIO report alleged that Tata Realty & Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd (TRIL) paid Rs.1,700 crore to Unitech in the garb of the land deal to fund its telecom licences. Stating that this aspect was not probed properly, the CBI has now instituted a preliminary inquiry into the allegations of cheating.
The report also mentioned, among others, the names of lobbyist Nira Niira Radia, Unitech chairman Ramesh Chandra, and managing directors Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra. Activist-lawyer Niraj Gunde has forwarded a copy of the report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to look into the document “which clearly asked for prosecution of Mr. Ratan Tata, Director of Tata Realty Mr. [F.N.] Subedar and Mr. [P.D.] Karkaria, CFO Mr. [Kishore] Selatore and the Company Secretary Mr. [M.V.] Balajee, under Section 420 of IPC.”
Stating that it was a bona fide deal that had no relation to the 2G licences as is being alleged, the Tata Realty spokesperson said: “The transaction between Unitech and TRIL was done with full and proper due diligence, and has been fully explained to all the regulatory agencies… Tata Realty stresses that it is committed to the highest standards of ethics and business conduct.”
The company also questioned the authenticity of the SFIO report saying: “TRIL had officially written to the SFIO, based on media reports, pointing out that the so-called SFIO report, as published in the media, was prepared not only without giving an opportunity to the company to be heard but also was factually incorrect. TRIL further requested SFIO to carry out a thorough investigation into the authorship of the so-called report.”
The Hindu has a copy of the SFIO report which the CBI sources confirmed was a genuine one.
SFIO found that eight Unitech “subsidiaries” applied in September 2007 and were granted licences in 22 telecom circles in February 2008, for which they paid Rs.1,651 crore allegedly out of the funds which originated from Tata Sons.
It identified those firms as Aska Project Limited, Nahan Properties, Unitech Builders &Estates, Adonis Properties, Hudson Properties, Azare Properties, Volga Properties and Unitech Infrastructure. After licence procurement they were allegedly amalgamated with Unitech Wireless (TN).
