Sunil Mittal, the chairman of India's biggest telecommunication carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd, was ordered today to appear before a court in a case over alleged corruption in allocating mobile phone bandwidth more than a decade ago.
Following is the media statement by Airtel on the summons:We are saddened at the summons being issued to Bharti Airtel Ltd. (earlier Bharti Cellular Ltd.) and to Sunil Bharti Mittal, as the Chairman & Managing Director of Bharti Airtel Ltd., whilst taking cognizance of the Charge Sheet filed by the CBI against Bharti Airtel Ltd., two Vodafone entities and an individual. This matter pertains to certain policy decisions taken during the NDA Government in 2002.
We would like to state the facts as under:
- CBI has asserted that they have not found any evidence of conspiracy against any individual whatsoever.
- The requests for additional spectrum allocations to improve the Quality of Service and to raise the standards of mobile telephony in India to global standards had been raised by several telecom operators and by Industry Associations since 1999/2000.
- The spectrum allocation i.e. subject of the charge sheet was made to Bharti Airtel Ltd. in December 2003 under the charge of then Minister of Communications in the NDA, Sh. Arun Shourie who has already been given a clean chit.
- The fact also is that the spectrum under Govt. policy of 01.02.2002, which the Charge Sheet alleges, was issued to benefit Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone continued until April 2010 under 3 separate Ministers of Telecom and 6 Secretaries in the DoT and despite being considered by several formal / informal committees of the DoT / TRAI.
- All other telecom operators including MTNL and BSNL received additional spectrum under this policy of 01.02.2002.
- Government has on several occasions stated on the floor of the Parliament, even as recently as 7th December 2012, that the additional spectrum granted to all operators and the related spectrum usage charges are as per the policy. The DoT has also filed affidavits before the courts confirming the same.
We would like to reiterate that Bharti Airtel Ltd. and its promoters have always practised the highest standards of corporate governance and accordingly view the Charge Sheet as an attempt to tarnish its high reputation.
We are disappointed with the Charge Sheet against a Company which is one of the few Indian MNCs, with a reputation for good governance standards. We will fight this charge sheet against Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel and a global leader associated with some of the best known institutions of the world and a brand ambassador for India.
We have full faith in the judicial process and are confident our position will be vindicated before the courts.