November 25th, 2011 
Param 
Problems have started to increase for India’s two top telecom companies Airtel and Vodafone as for as the investigation of 2G spectrum scandal is concerned. A few days ago Central Bureau of Investigation raided at Vodafone’s Mumbai and Airtel’s Gurgon offices. CBI has started to investigate the spectrum rights issued during Pramod Mahajan’s tenure as the telecom minister. At the same time CBI raided at the residences of two top telecom officers of the Indian telecom department. They are former telecom secretary Mr. Shiyam Ghosh and former D.G. Mr. J R Gupta.
CBI is investigating that Vodafone and Airtel had used malpractices to get the additional telecom rights when telecom rights were issued to private players by the Indian telecom department. It is noteworthy that Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA was ruling in the centre and late Mr. Pramod Mahajan was telecom minister at that time. Immediately after registering the FRI, CBI searched Airtel and Vodafone offices including the residences of Ghosh and J R Gupta. During Pramod Mahajan’s time, J R Gupta was Deputy Director of the telecom department. In this new case, CBI has said that government had to face a loss of 508 crores because of the telecom rights issuance scandal that happened during the years of 2001-2007. CBI has said that cases have been registered against Ghosh and Gupta, Bharti Cellular (now Bharti Airtel), Hutchinson Max and Sterling Cellular (now Vodafone air) under various acts of Indian Penal Code.
CBI has kept Parmod Mahajan out of investigations as the later is not alive now. But CBI has accused him of being involved in the scandal. Reacting to these raids, Airtel and Vodafone have said that they have used highest standards of the corporate world while providing their world class services to the Indian users.
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