Tata Teleservices did not bribe ex-India telco minister

Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata said Wednesday the group hasn't paid any bribe to Andimuthu Raja, the former Indian telecommunications minister now in jail facing charges of irregularities in a 2008 allotment of telecom licenses and radio bandwidth. Tata Teleservices Ltd. was among the companies that got the licenses.
The federal agency probing the allegations had said that the Tata group company wasn't involved in any irregularities. Media reports cited Shahid Balwa, one of the accused in the case, as saying in a court that the Tata group had "donated" INR200 million to a hospital in the southern Tamil Nadu state on a request from the former minister. Responding to queries at the annual shareholders meeting of Tata Steel Ltd., another group company, Ratan Tata said the group didn't make any payment though it had offered funds to purchase hospital equipment."We indicated that we will pay against actual equipment in the hospital, but no equipment was installed," he said.

---