NEW DELHI: Indian police said on Friday they raided the home of a company executive whose firm has been linked to a growing scandal involving the privatization of the nation’s telecommunications sector. The raid followed a search of two homes belonging to former communications minister Sukh Ram during which pole seized more than $I million in cash and the arrest of a civil servant. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Thursday it raided the home of Mahendra Nahata, chairman of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd, a little known firm that won lucrative licenses earlier this year, “Searches were conducted at his home,” CBI spokesman S.M. Khan told some documents were seized and are being scrutinized.” The Press Trust of India (PTI) said its offices were also raided on Friday. Neither Nahata nor company officials could be reached for comment.
“Some CBI officials did visit the house of Mr. Nahata and held discussions with him,” PTI quoted a senior company official, Arvind Kharbanda, as saying. Last week, the CBI seized cash worth over $1 million from two homes belonging to Sukh Ram. He was abroad during the raids last week and was located on Friday in London. His relatives told the Indian high commission in London that he was unwell and planned to return to India within a week. Earlier he was in the United States as part of a trip which media reports said was for treatment linked to heart problems, Khan confirmed police searches of Nahata’s home were linked to last week’s corruption case against Sukh Ram former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao’s Congress party, suspended Sukh Ram from its membership this week after the raids. No formal charges have been laid by the CBI but a senior telephone department official has been arrested in the case. On Friday, police arrested the owner of a radio equipment firm alleged to have been favored by Sukh Ram, PTI said. Sukh Ram oversaw a return finished privatization process that began in 1994 and was accused by the opposition of unfairly flavoring the HFCL in an auction of li censes under an economic reform program started in 1991. He has denied the accusations. Although the raids on his homes were not linked to the privatization of telephone services, they revived simmering charges that Sukh Ram mishandled the tendering process for licenses in the privatization scheme. Opposition parties pro testing against Sukh Ram and the licensing process virtually paralyzed parliament during a month long session last December. On Monday, new Communications Minister Beni Prasad Verma ordered an overhaul of the committee which awards the licenses.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 4, 1996
