India’s federal police agency yesterday cleared the country’s Tata Group, saying it had committed no wrongdoing in a massive telecoms scandal that has rocked the government.
The Central Bureau of Investigation told a court that Tata Telecom, an arm of the sprawling tea-to-steel group, was not a “beneficiary” in the case that the national auditor estimates cost the state nearly US$40 billion in lost revenue.
There was “no illegality in the granting of [2G] licenses to the Tatas,” the police agency said in its submission to the New Delhi court.
“The real beneficiaries are the new people who got new licenses,” the submission said.
Prosecutors allege former Indian telecom minister A. Raja sold telecom licenses at give-away prices in 2008 to favored companies that paid bribes to gain sought-after 2G bandwidth in the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone market.
Tata Group is one of India’s most respected business houses headed by Ratan Tata.
More than a dozen people are in jail over the telecoms scandal, notably Raja, other top officials and business executives from companies such as mobile giant Reliance Communications.
Indian tycoon Anil Ambani, who heads the Reliance ADA Group that owns Reliance Communications, was questioned by the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee over the sale of telecoms licenses, but has not been charged.
All those accused in the case by police have denied any wrongdoing.
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