Former India telco minister, others go on trial in corruption case

An Indian court Friday started trial in a case in which a former federal minister and several others including a lawmaker and corporate executives are accused of depriving the government several billion dollars of potential revenue by rigging a sale of telecommunication bandwidth.

The case had put the administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under tremendous pressure, with opposition parties alleging that Singh and some of his senior ministers could have prevented the 2008 sale of bandwidth at below market prices.

It has also put a black mark on the telecom sector, considered until recently the beacon of India's economic growth, and prompted nationwide public movements against corruption.

Andimuthu Raja, the chief accused who was the telecom minister when the sale happened, lawmaker Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and 12 other accused, including former government officials and corporate executives, appeared in a court room crowded with lawyers, journalists and relatives of the accused.

The accused face charges such as bribery, forgery, criminal breach of trust and abetment to crime. All of them have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, the agency that probed the case, has also named three companies--Reliance Communications Ltd. unit Reliance Telecom Ltd.; Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd., which is now named Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd. and Unitech Wireless Ltd.--accusing them of benefiting from the irregularities.

The court, set up specifically to hear the case, will examine 28 witnesses in the first phase of the trial scheduled to go on until Nov. 30, according to documents filed by the probe agency.

Anand Subramaniam, an executive at Reliance Capital Ltd., was the first witness called to depose in the case. Reliance Capital and Reliance Communications are part of Anil Ambani-headed Reliance Group.

Meanwhile, Raja's lawyer Sushil Kumar refused to participate at the current stage of the trial, saying the probe agency's recording of statements from witnesses hasn't been given to his team, and that the investigation was still on. Raja and Kanimozhi belong to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a key ally of India's Congress party-led coalition government.

Raja resigned as a minister in November last year after a federal auditor reported the 2008 bandwidth sale may have resulted in a potential revenue loss of nearly $40 billion to the government. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which arrested Raja earlier this year, estimates the losses at $7 billion.