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308. Learned counsels further argued that since the charge sheet has already been filed, there is no possibility of the petitioner interfering with the investigation. The petitioner voluntarily appeared in the court pursuant to the summons which rules out any possibility of his fleeing from justice. Therefore, taking into account the facts and the nature of offence for which the petitioner has been charge sheeted, the petitioner is entitled to be released on bail.
4. Learned Sh. Mukul Rohtagi, Sr. Advocate appearing for the accused Vinod Goenka submitted that he has been unfairly arrayed as an accused. There is no evidence to show his complicity in the conspiracy. Learned counsel submitted that accused Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka were examined during investigation wherein both of them stated that they were partners in DB Realty Group. However, Vinod Goenka had nothing to do with telecom business of the above company and as per the arrangement between him and Shahid Balwa, he was exclusively looking after the work of hospitality and realty business of the company. No application or document relating to issue of UAS Licence to M/s. Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. was signed by accused Vinod Goenka. This rules out any possibility of his complicity in the conspiracy. Learned counsel further argued that M/s. Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. had applied for UAS Licence on 02nd March, 2007 and it already had a highest priority under the earlier policy of first cum first serve. Thus, M/s. Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. had nothing to gain from the change in policy which is the bedrock of theory of conspiracy. It is further argued that the petitioner has been charged for the offences entailing maximum punishment upto seven years imprisonment. Therefore, the offence allegedly committed by him cannot be termed as the offence of grave magnitude calling for severest of punishment, as such, the other factors being in favour of the petitioner, he is entitled to bail. Petitioner Vinod Goenka has relied upon the judgment of Supreme Court in Gurcharan Singh Vs. State (Delhi Administration), 1978, 1SCC 118 and Anil Mahajan Vs. Commissioner of Customs & Anr., 2000(2) JCC 302. Accused Vinod Goenka has also argued the defence taken on behalf of accused Sanjay Chandra regarding the interpretation of Section 88 Cr.P.C. and the directions issued by this Court in Court on its Own Motion Vs. CBI, 2004(1) JCC 308.
ROLE OF ACCUSED GAUTAM DOSHI, HARI NAIR AND SURENDRA PIPARA:
16. At the relevant time, accused Gautam Doshi and Surendra Pipara were Group Presidents and Hari Nair was Group Vice President of Reliance ADA Group. Charge sheet reveals that they entered into a criminal conspiracy with the object to enable Reliance ADA Group Companies to get UAS Licences for 13 circles which they were not eligible to get in view of Clause 8 of UASL guidelines. In order to circumvent the aforesaid ineligibility clause and to cheat the Department, the petitioners Gautam Doshi Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara created and structured a new company M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd which applied for UASL Licence on 2nd March, 2007. The above referred accused persons has structured M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. in such a manner that its equity holding was shown as 90.1% with M/s Tiger Traders Pvt. Ltd. and 9.9% with M/s Reliance Telecom Ltd. The investigation into holding structures of M/s Tiger Traders Pvt. Ltd. revealed that aforesaid company was actually funded by the Group Companies of M/s Reliance ADA Group. It was revealed that `3 crores utilized by M/s Tiger Traders Pvt. Ltd. in January 2007 and `95.51 crores used by said company in March, 2007 to subscribe to majority equity shares of M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. was arranged through Group Companies of Reliance ADA Group. Besides that, a sum of `992 crores which constituted the bulk of networth of M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. was also provided by Reliance Telecom Ltd. under the garb of subscribing to preferential shares to M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. Those preferential shares were purchased by Reliance Telecom Ltd. at abnormally high premium of `999/- per share of face value `1/- although M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. had no business history at that time. Aforesaid amount was immediately returned by M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd to M/s Reliance Communications Ltd. on the pretext of advance against a purchase order. These transactions were carried out on the instruction of Gautam Doshi and Hari Nair.
18. Before the LOI could be granted, M/s Reliance Communications Ltd., a group of Reliance ADA Group got GSM spectrum in those 13 circles pursuant to its applications under dual technology policy. Thus, the application dated 2nd March, 2007 moved through M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd was of no use to Reliance ADA Group. Accordingly, Reliance ADA Group withdrew its holding from M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. and the accused Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara transferred the control of M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. to the co-accused Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka in order to facilitate them to cheat DOT by getting UAS Licence in the name of M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. which company till 18th October, 2007 was ineligible for UAS Licence in view of Clause 8 of policy guideline.
ROLE OF ACCUSED VINOD GOENKA:
19. The role assigned to accused Vinod Goenka is that he is the Director of M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. along with his co-Director accused Shahid Balwa since 01.10.2007. They took over majority stake in Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. on 18.10.2007 through their company M/s. D.B. Infrastructures Pvt. Ltd., a company of Dynamix Balwa Group. This was done with a view to illegally take advantage of the application for grant of UAS licence submitted by Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd on 02.03.2007 which was left of no use to M/s Reliance ADA Group. On 18.10.2007, Reliance Telecommunication Group got GSM spectrum in 13 circles under the dual technology policy of the Government. Thus, the application moved by them through M/s Swan Telecom Company Pvt. Ltd remained of no use to Reliance ADA Group. In order to take advantage of the aforesaid situation, the petitioner Vinod Goenka and his co-accused Shahid Balwa joined the party and in furtherance of conspiracy, they took over the majority stake in Swan Telecom Ltd. on 18.10.2007 through their company M/s. DB Infrastructures Pvt. Ltd., a company of Dynamix Balwa Group. Before taking over majority stakes, the petitioner and Shahid Balwa joined as Directors of Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd . The object of this exercise was to cheat DOT and obtain UAS licence. In order to achieve this end, the petitioner and Shahid Balwa falsified the record pertaining of Board Meeting of M/s Giraffe Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. fraudulently showing transfer of its shares by Reliance ADA Group to itself. The petitioner Vinod Goenka in conspiracy with Shahid Balwa also concealed true facts and furnished false information to DOT regarding share holding pattern of Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. as on date of application and thereby misrepresented that STPL was an eligible company to get UAS Licence on the date of application i.e. 02.03.2007, whereas the company was not eligible as per UAS guidelines. The charge sheet further discloses that petitioner Vinod Goenka along with Shahid Balwa is overall beneficiary of getting UAS licence and valuable and scarce spectrum in 13 telecom circles including Delhi. This is apparent from the fact that within slightly more than two months of issue of UAS Licence to M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd., a UAE company M/s Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (ETISALAT) subscribed to 11,29,94,228 shares of M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. of face value `10/- at a huge premium of `275.7178 per share for a total consideration of `3228 crores. And M/s Genex Exim Ventures Pvt. Ltd. also subscribed to 1,33,17,245 shares of M/s Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. at the same premium for a total consideration of `380,49,73,846/-. This gives a glimpse of quantum of monetary gain reaped by the accused Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka. Therefore, prima facie, it cannot be said that he was not aware of the huge investments done by the company in respect of deposit of the entry fee pursuant to the LOI for issue of UAS licence. Thus, complicity of Vinod Goenka in the conspiracy is, prima facie, disclosed by the charge sheet and the supporting evidence.