Balwa to appear before Delhi court today

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, INDIA: Shahid Balwa, managing director of DB Realty, named in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, was brought to Delhi on Wednesday evening by the CBI after a Mumbai court granted the investigation agency his two-day transit remand.

"Balwa has been brought to Delhi. He will be presented in a special CBI court on Thursday in Patiala House after 12.30 p.m.," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official told IANS.

Balwa, arrested in Mumbai late on Tuesday by the CBI, was taken before the Mumbai court on Wednesday morning.

In its remand application, the CBI said Balwa's company Swan Telecom (a part of the Mumbai-based DB Realty) allegedly got favours in the spectrum allocation and caused the national exchequer a loss of over Rs.22,000 crore.

It also said Balwa allegedly conspired with private companies to sell to a Gulf firm at a huge profit the 2G spectrum licences Swan Telecom acquired at a cheap rate.

But a spokesperson of DB Realty said that "neither Balwa nor any person or entity forming part of the DB Group has done anything illegal or inappropriate" and that he would be "strongly contesting the proceedings" against him.

Balwa became the fourth person -- and the first who is not a government official -- to be arrested in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.

Former communications minister Andimuthu Raja and two of his ministry aides are under arrest. The scam relates to irregularities in the allocation of second generation spectrum to telecom companies when Raja was the minister.

Established in the early 1970s, DB Realty Ltd is the flagship company of Dynamix Balwas Group.

DB Realty has said it would continue as usual under its managing director Vinod Goenkar and that stakeholders' interests would be protected.

Swan Telecom is now Etisalat DB.