The Dynamix Balwas group (DB Group) has come under the CBI?s scrutiny, according to news reports. The CBI is probing the involvement of Vinod Goenka, chairman and Shahid Balwa, managing director, the DB Group, in the 2G issue. It is believed that the CBI has irrefutable evidence of the duo having played a major role in the issue and receiving benefits.
Goenka and Balwa are reportedly close to a Maharashtra politician who is said to have introduced them, in 2004, to former telecommunications and IT Minister A. Raja. In 2004, when they met Raja, the DMK leader was holding the portfolio of environment and forests. The DB group required an environmental clearance for a project in the Coastal Regulation Zone. Raja reportedly obliged and since then both Goenka and Balwa have been his close associates.
Balwa was questioned twice in 2010 by the CBI and it is believed that Goenka is likely to be next in line. The DB group, through Tiger Trustees, holds over 90 per cent stake in Swan Telecom, which bagged licences for operating in 13 circles by paying Rs 15.37 billion. Within months, it sold 45 per cent of its shares to Etisalat for US $900 million.
