Police probe India tycoon Ambani in graft case-report

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – Indian federal police are  examining the role of tycoon Anil Ambani in a multi-billion  dollar telecoms scandal that has rocked political and business  elites, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said today.
The 52-year-old billionaire is the highest-profile company  executive to be touched by the investigation of whether  lucrative radio spectrum and mobile phone licences were sold at  below-market prices in return for kickbacks.
The scandal is the biggest of several corruption cases to  emerge in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s second term. It has  damaged the government’s credibility and thrown a spotlight on  the behaviour of leading industrialists and politicians.
A lawyer for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told  the Supreme Court that Ambani was now under investigation, after  he was questioned earlier this year by police, according to PTI.
Three of his executives are already in jail accused of  setting up a front company called Swan Telecom to gain valuable  radio spectrum during the sale. A state auditor said the scandal  cost the government up to $39 billion in lost revenues.
“The role of Ambani and other employees in relation to 9.9  the percent share in the Swan Telecom which was sold to Delphi  is being probed,” CBI lawyer K.K. Venugopal said, according to  PTI.
A CBI source told Reuters the agency was currently  collecting evidence and not yet directly investigating Ambani,  who controls India’s No. 2 mobile carrier Reliance  Communications as part of his Reliance ADA group.
“In case there is anything we will investigate,” said the  source, who asked not to be named. “The probe is not over yet.”
One of the country’s most recognisable figures, Ambani is a  teetotal marathon runner listed by Forbes as India’s eighth  richest man. He denies wrongdoing in the telecoms case. A  Reliance ADA spokesman declined to comment on Thursday.
Ambani is the controlling shareholder of Reliance  Communications and is part of the Anil Dhirubhai  Ambani Group conglomerate which has interests from telecoms to  energy and outsourcing.
He is the chairman and chief executive of the group  companies. Reliance Communicatins shares fell 1.15 percent on  Thursday to close at 77.60 rupees.
The CBI lawyer said the three jailed men had now retracted  previous statements in which they had taken responsibility for  decisions made in the Reliance unit they worked for, the news  agency said.
“Suddenly they are going back on their statement and are now  saying that they are only employees and in no way they benefited  monetarily,” Venugopal said.
“We are going to take our probe further to find out who are  the real beneficiaries,” he said, according to the news agency.
Revelations of graft in the telecoms license sales  and during the buildup to the 2010 Commonwealth games in Delhi  sparked the largest street protests in decades this August  against a culture of kickbacks and favors between political and  business elites and also sparked tensions in the federal  cabinet.