2G scam: CBI questions Videocon's Dhoot, his brother

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday questioned Videocon group chairman Venugopal Dhoot, and his brother and Rajya Sabha MP Rajkumar Dhoot in connection with the probe into allocation of spectrum in 2008.

The duo was called to the CBI headquarters Monday afternoon and questioned for over seven hours and confronted with the documents of changing their share capital from Rs 100,000 to Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion), official sources said.

The sources said that statement of their company secretary, submitted to the Department of Telecom, claiming change in the share capital, was also shown to them and asked to explain the minutes of the meeting of an extra-ordinary general body of the company held on August 27, 2007.

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The questioning of the duo was part of the CBI questioning all the heads of nine companies which were allocated spectrum in 2008. Videocon was allocated a start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz in all circles except Delhi.

The company could not be contacted for comments.

The agency so far has questioned top brass of various telecom companies, including Reliance Infocomm chairman Anil Ambani, Essar CEO Prashant Ruia and Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra.

The Comptroller and Auditor General in its report had alleged that Datacom Solutions, which later changed to Videocon Telecommunications, while submitting its application for 22 licences on August 28, 2007, had "made a false claim of paid-up capital of Rs 150 crore through company secretary although documents attached indicated that the authorised share capital of the company as Rs 100,000 only."

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Since the requirement of the requisite amount of the paid-up capital was an important eligibility criterion, their applications ought to have been rejected forthwith.

However, on November 27, 2007, the company suo-motto submitted a so-called "correct" version of documents as on August 28, 2007, stating that they had submitted an old version of documents inadvertently along with the application.

"The new version of Memorandum Of Association and Article of Association claimed to have increased the authorised share capital from Rs 100,000 to Rs 150 crore through an ordinary resolution passed in the extra-ordinary general meeting on August 27, 2007, a day preceding the date of submission of applications by the company.

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"Since there is a procedure prescribed in the Companies Act for effecting increase in the authorised share capital of a company, the company could under no circumstances have a paid-up capital of Rs 150 crore on August 28, 2007 and hence the certificate furnished by the company secretary of the company appeared to be false," the CAG report had claimed.

It alleged that DoT "failed miserably" to do any due diligence in the examination of claims of the company even when company claimed to have passed the resolution enhancing the authorised share capital on the preceding day of the date of application of the applicant company.