The court will rule on bail applications of officials from the Indian joint ventures of Norway’s Telenor , the United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat and from India’s Reliance ADA group, owned by tycoon Anil Ambani, named in the case.
Sacked telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja and the executives are charged with manipulating the grants of telecoms licences in the world’s fastest-growing telecoms market, causing a potential loss to the government of $39 billion.
But for the moment more mundane matters ruled, highlighting India’s archaic court system that is often criticized for taking years to deliver justice.
“The lines are missing in several statements. The documents are haphazard,” a lawyer brandishing a copy of a handwritten witness deposition told judge O.P. Saini. The judge acknowledged even he could not read it.
“Several pages are missing.”
Duffle bags filled with documents were scattered around the court while a security official with a gun slung over the shoulder stood guard in the sweltering summer heat.
In a country where top business executives and politicians were largely seen as untouchable, the case has gripped India amid a growing backlash from an urban middle class angry at corruption in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
One executive had to fight his way through a crowd of journalists, relatives and officials in the courtroom while lawyers pleaded with the throng to let them pass to the front. As the court became gradually hotter, an argument broke out over whether a noisy fan should be left on to cool the room.
The case is the latest chapter in a series of corruption scandals that have embarrassed the Congress party-led government, which faces a test of strength in major state elections that could redraw India’s political landscape.
Most analysts expect the DMK, Raja’s party and a key Congress ally in the south, to lose power because of the backlash from the scandal.
Raja was arrested last year and his subsequent request for bail was turned down
The scams, exposed in recent months, point to a pervasive culture of corruption in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration, prompting a man once seen as India’s most honest politician to defend his leadership and scramble to keep the ruling coalition intact.
The federal police on Friday opposed the bail applications for three officials from Reliance and for the managing director of Telenor’s Indian partner, saying they could abscond from the trial or try to influence the witnesses.
“The acts complained of, and offenses alleged are far serious, having made deep inroads in public interest and financial affairs of the state,” the federal police told the court in a document, a copy of which was made available to Reuters by a lawyer involved in the trial.
“There is also every likelihood that the accused will abscond in order to avoid smooth running of the trial.”
The new telecoms minister Kapil Sibal could cancel several of the contentious licences issued under Raja, a move that will likely feed investor uncertainty about the stability of government contracts and regulations in India.
The scandal has weighed on the Mumbai stock market, which ended the March quarter as the world’s worst performer.
Norway’s Prime Minister raised concerns that Telenor may be wrongly penalized in the scandal, and wrote a letter to his Indian counterpart to ensure the firm receives “fair treatment” in the case.
Under fire from a resurgent opposition, the corruption saga has sapped the government’s strength to push an agenda of economic reforms such as simplifying India’s tax code or opening its supermarket sector to foreign players.
Wall-to-wall media coverage of what has been dubbed the “season of scams” intensified last week when a social activist went on a fast unto death in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi to press the government to tackle corruption.
“Let’s start. If we don’t, they’ll write that I’m not taking this case forward,” the judge said earlier on Friday, pointing to the throng of journalists at the trial.
Two parliamentary panels are probing the scandal and one of them summoned Anil Ambani, as well as Ratan Tata, the head of the $70 billion Tata conglomerate, for questioning. Separately on Friday, one of the panels called in India’s Attorney General and the head of the federal police to face questions on the investigation of the scandal.
Former minister Raja, clad in grey trousers and a striped shirt, sat in the courtroom chatting with his former secretary who was also arrested in the case. The defendants were surrounded by their family and watched over by khaki-uniformed policemen.
Sanjay Chandra, the managing director of Telenor’s partner Unitech Ltd , who is accused of conspiring with Raja, sat alone in a corner.
All of the executives and the minister have denied wrong-doing.
