New Delhi:
RK Krishna Kumar, referred to in corporate circles as Ratan Tata's right-hand man, was questioned by the CBI today for six hours in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.
Mr Kumar is currently a director on the Tata Sons board and also heads Tata Realty, a part of the Tata Group. He was summoned to the CBI headquarters in Delhi along with his company's Managing Director, Sanjay Ubale. Both men were asked to explain a loan for Rs 1700 crores given in 2008 to real estate company Unitech. The CBI has identified Unitech as one of the major beneficiaries of the 2G spectrum scam allegedly engineered by former Telecom Minister A Raja, who is now in jail.
Unitech got its loan from Tata Realty just before it applied for its mobile network license in 2008. Because the loan amount matches what Unitech paid for its 2G license, the CBI suspects that the real estate giant may have been a front for Tata Teleservices, which had already been granted a license to provide mobile services.
Investigators suspect that the Tata group was favoured by Mr Raja and are looking into whether his party, the DMK, was given a Tata property -the Voltas Building in Chennai - as a kickback. The building, according to the CBI, was transferred in late 2007 to the wife of M Karunanidhi, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. However, in recent weeks, Mr Karunanidhi's daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi has denied that her family was given the building at throwaway rates.
The CBI says it's being discrete in allowing senior executives like Mr Kumar to enter its headquarters through side entrances that are inaccessible to the media. They say they want to avoid impacting the sensitive stock market as they progress with an inquiry that centres around the collusion of some of India's biggest and best-known companies with politicians and bureaucrats for a swindle that is worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore according to the government's auditor.