The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it will attach property worth Rs 2,000 crore of two companies involved in the 2G spectrum scam. The attachment process under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) will be finished in the next two months, the ED said.
Sources in the ED said the attachment process would start with Unitech Wireless.
The submission came as part of the ED progress report being read out before the Supreme Court Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly.
“It will be done in two months time against the companies whose names have been mentioned in the complaints. We have to collect details of their properties,” Venugopal informed the court.
The ED reported that it was probing the links of five foreign companies registered in the Virgin Islands.
“The companies are connected with DB Realty. Funds started moving from a real estate company. An amount of Rs 1,400 crore went from the top to the bottom and goes back to the original source,” Venugopal said referring to the money trail following the 2G licence allocation.
The CBI also filed a fresh status report, and sought more time to complete the probe into spectrum allocation from 2001 to 2007. The agency submitted that it has become clear that rules were circumvented and huge amounts in bribes spent.
Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, pointed out that only “senior paid officials” of R-ADAG are in the CBI net, while the agency has “tried to shield” its 50 per cent shareholder and the company chairman.
Bhushan pointed out that R-ADAG chairman is the one who benefits from the 2G licence while the three accused are only paid employees. But the SC said the issue is for the special court to consider.
The court has scheduled the case for further hearing on May 3.
The Bench further ordered the Income-Tax department to provide a transcripts of the tapped conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia to CBI and ED. This came after CBI complained that the I-T has not provided the transcript of 5000-hour tapped conversations.
