The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reportedly carried out a search at Vodafone Essar?s Mumbai office and Bharti Airtel?s Gurgaon office and registered a case against Shyamal Ghosh, former secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on grounds of alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation during the tenure of Pramod Mahajan as Minister of Telecommunications and IT.
In response, Bharti Airtel issued a statement that said, ?Bharti Airtel has always maintained the highest standards of corporate governance and regulatory compliance. We would like to categorically state that all the spectrum allotted to us from time to time has been strictly as per the stated Government policy. We are providing all details and correspondence to the authorities and shall provide complete support as needed in the matter.?
Prior to this, the CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry to examine the allocation of spectrum under Mahajan to certain companies beyond the prescribed limit.
In its FIR, the CBI alleged that DoT had increased the base spectrum for telecom companies from 4.4 MhZ to 6.2 MhZ during Mahajan’s tenure from 2001 to 2003 and also allocated extra spectrum on the subscriber-based criteria.
