Shahid Balwa taken to Delhi
By IANSWednesday, February 9, 2011
MUMBAI - Shahid Balwa, promoter of Swan Telecom, was taken to New Delhi in connection with the 2G scam after a Mumbai court Wednesday granted a two-day transit remand to the CBI, an official said.
Balwa, arrested in Mumbai late Tuesday by the Central Bureau of Investigation, was presented before a court Wednesday morning and was then taken to the Mumbai airport for a flight to New Delhi.
The CBI nabbed Balwa following an arrest warrant issued by a New Delhi court.
In its remand application, CBI said Balwa’s company Swan Telecom, which allegedly got favours in the spectrum allocation, had caused the national exchequer a loss of over Rs.22,000 crore.
It further said that Balwa allegedly conspired with private companies to sell 2G spectrum licences acquired at a cheap rate by Swan Telecom — part of DB Realty — to a company in the Gulf at a huge profit.
Balwa became the fourth person — and the first who is not a government official — to be arrested in connection with the scam.
Former communications minister A. Raja and two of his aides are under arrest. The scam relates to irregularities in the allocation of second generation spectrum to telecom companies when Raja was the minister.
Swan Telecom is one of the companies that allegedly benefited from the spectrum allocation. It was part of Mumbai-based DB Realty, which has since then become Etisalat DB.
