By R. Jai Krishna
NEW DELHI--India's federal investigative agency late Monday said
it has removed a key prosecutor in the high profile case of alleged
corruption in the allocation of telecom licenses in 2008.
The Central Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that it
has started a preliminary inquiry to see if the prosecutor
discussed strategy with one of the key people accused of being
involved in the corruption case.
While the statement didn't give any names, a CBI spokeswoman
separately told The Wall Street Journal that the prosecutor is A.K.
Singh and the accused is Sanjay Chandra, managing director of real
estate developer Unitech Ltd. (507878.BY).
The CBI statement said: "It has come to the notice of the CBI
that a public prosecutor was allegedly in touch with, and was
discussing certain points regarding prosecution strategy with an
accused in the 2G Spectrum allocation case, which is currently
under trial."
It added that another prosecutor has been appointed to the
team.
Mr. Chandra is currently facing trial for his alleged
involvement in improperly getting telecom permits for Unitech
Wireless Ltd. He has been charged with criminal conspiracy,
cheating the government, forging documents and bribery.
Mr. Singh and Mr. Chandra couldn't be immediately reached for
comment.
Unitech said in a statement that Mr. Chandra denies the
allegations of being in touch with the prosecutor as well as any
wrongdoing in the spectrum allocation case.
"He wishes to make it absolutely clear that he has never met the
prosecutor in the 2G case outside the court or had any phone
conversation with him," Unitech said.
In October 2012, Norway's Telenor ASA (TEL.OS) ended a nearly
four-year-long telecommunications venture with Unitech.
This came after India's Supreme Court in February 2012 revoked
the licenses of several telecom companies, including all the
permits held by the Telenor-Unitech venture, citing irregularities
in their allotment in 2008.
Telenor had bought its majority stake in the venture, Unitech
Wireless Ltd., after the Indian company got the licenses.
While Telenor blamed Unitech for the license cancellations, the
local company denied any wrongdoing.
Write to R. Jai Krishna at krishna.jai@dowjones.com
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