2G scam: Reliance ADAG exec suffers from 'amnesia’ in court

NEW DELHI: Reliance Powers' DGM Paresh Rathod, a prosecution witness in the 2G scam, on Monday failed to recollect before a Special CBI court if he had told the agency that he had not deposited a cheque issued to him by Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd, an alleged associate of Reliance ADAG, at the behest of the group's senior VP and accused Hari Nair.
Rathod, in his earlier statement to the CBI, had said he had resigned as one of the directors of Swan Capital Pvt Ltd on Nair's orders, but he failed to recollect that on Monday in the court. “I do not remember if I had told the investigating officer (IO) that Dinesh Modi and myself resigned as directors for Swan Capital (P) Limited on January 22, 2007 on the asking of Hari Nair, other company secretary....I do not remember if I had told the IO that the cheque of Tiger Traders (P) Ltd was not deposited by me on the asking of Hari Nair,” Rathod told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.
He deposed in the court that he had resigned as the director of Swan Capital Pvt Ltd and Tiger Traders Pvt Ltd on the instructions of his senior colleague Ramesh Shenoy. This, however, led the CBI prosecutor to cross-examine Rathod saying, “the witness was resiling from his earlier statement”.
During the cross-examination, Rathod failed to remember if he had told the CBI that he had resigned as one of the directors of Swan Capital Pvt Ltd on January 22, 2007.
While being cross-examined by Shahid Usman Balwa’s counsel Vijay Aggarwal, Rathod said that he was the first director of Swan Capital (Pvt) Limited and the company was “incorporated for financial purposed and not for running telecom business”. “Telecom business was not finding a place in the object clause of the company,” he added.