New Delhi:
One of the 5 entities whose license the telecom regulator wants is Etisalat DB, formerly known as Swan Telecom.
Swan Telecom has been under the scanner and named in the CAG report for getting undue benefits, and it now seems it has links to Tamil Nadu and possibly even DMK.
Investigations done by NDTV into documents filed by the company have led to a trail that links Swan Telecom to Dubai-based ETA Star, that has major business interests in Tamil Nadu.
Here's how it all started. Swan got its 2G licence in January 2008. Nine months later Dubai's telecom giant Etisalat bought 45% share of Swan and renamed it Etisalat DB.
But what remains hidden is that just a week before that on September 17, 2008, a separate company called Genex Exim ventures was formed in Chennai with a paid-up capital of just Rs 1 lakh.
Shockingly, three months later on December 17, 2008, Genex Exim bought shares worth Rs 380 crore in Etisalat DB, even though the source of funds has not been mentioned or filed with RoC and this firm had a capital of only Rs 1 lakh.
How it all links up:Genex Exim is represented on Etisalat DB's board by Ahmed Syed Salahuddin, son of managing director of Dubai-based firm ETA Star. It's a group that is known to be close to DMK and has bagged several projects in Tamil Nadu including an SEZ and an integrated township in Kanchipuram.
ETA Star is also planning a 450-acre township near Chennai.