11 February,2011 06:23 AM IST | | Poornima Swaminathan
Dawood invested large sums of money in the firm of real estate magnate arrested in connection with 2G scam, say CBI sources; Balwa's frequent trips to Dubai in private jet also under scanner
THE CBI interrogation of DB Realty's MD, Shahid Balwa, in connection with the 2G spectrum scam has thrown up the possibility of the real estate magnate having links with India's most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim.
According to senior CBI officials, Dawood invested large sums of money in Balwa's firm, which was used by him to finance many of his business deals.
An official escorts Shahid Balwa (in black) to the CBI headquarters in Delhi on Wednesday
To keep the money flowing, Balwa is learnt to have made several trips to Dubai, Dawood's hideout, in his private airplane.
The agency is now planning to seek details of these trips from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Investigations have revealed that a senior politician also accompanied Balwa on many of these trips.
"We will seek details of Balwa's frequent visits and are probing the underworld link," said a senior CBI official, on condition of anonymity.
He added that the checking systems in place for a private plane are very lenient and anybody can bribe their way out.
"All it requires is taking care of the ground staff. No one is privy to what is being brought into and taken out of the country in a private plane. Balwa may have misused this laxity."
Arrest
Balwa was arrested by the CBI on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, which has also seen the arrests of former telecom minister A Raja, his former personal secretary R K Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura.
Investigations had revealed that Swan Telecom, a company floated by Balwa, was allegedly favoured in the allocation of 2G spectrum, which caused a loss of Rs 22,000 crore to the national exchequer.
CBI sources said that the sudden, phenomenal growth of the firm led by the 37-year-old managing director in the last five years had raised several eyebrows.
The CBI had also said that it was necessary for it to confront Raja and Balwa together to piece together the missing links of the scam.
The Patiala House court in Delhi yesterday ordered four days' police remand for Raja and Balwa.
Ek Cutting!
Other Balwa
The term balwa means money in bar dancer lingo. When a bar dancer tells her colleague 'balwa lape lo' on the dancer floor, it means the client is flush with money and she should try to please him.
Rs 22,000 cr
Amount of loss the national exchequer had to bear because of the 2G scam
The Other Side
Satish Maneshinde, Balwa's advocate, said, "I am not aware of anything like this (underworld links). My client travels all over the world, including Dubai. Dubai is not a prohibited place and he visits it for business purposes."
In a statement, the DB Group said that Balwa was being "implicated". "We reiterate that neither Mr Balwa nor any person/entity forming part of the DB Group has done anything inappropriate or illegal. Mr Balwa will be strongly contesting the proceedings," said the statement.
