The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has reportedly placed on record, the Ministry of Law and Justice?s opinion that provided the definition of the term associate in the Special CBI Court handling the 2G spectrum issue.

Prior to this, the Ministry of Law and Justice had said that a company can be an associate of another, only if it is a subsidiary and that two firms can be associates of each other if a parent company owns more than 50 per cent stake in both.

The definition of the term associate forms the base of the charges filed by the CBI against top executives of Swan Telecom, three executives of the Reliance ADA Group, Loop Telecom and the Essar Group.

In so far, the CBI had opposed tabling the Ministry of Law and Justice?s opinion, which implied that Swan Telecom was not an associate company of Reliance Telecom.