The ED, in a status report on the 2G spectrum scam submitted to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, cited huge transfers of money to several foreign banks in different countries, including known tax havens, through normal banking transactions and through hawala operations of four “Jain brothers”, which the top court described as a “huge network”.
Special counsel for the CBI and ED K.K. Venugopal read out the details in “bits and pieces” but clearly mentioned the names of four brothers operating a hawala network. They are Daulat Jain, Mahesh Jain, Rajesh Jain and Alok Jain.
The money, apparently generated from 2G spectrum transactions, was mainly transferred to tax havens like Singapore, Mauritius, the Isle of Man, British Virgin Islands, the Channel Islands and two other countries. One transaction by a telecom firm to a company called Gypsy Rovers in Mauritius was of `1,450 crore, the ED counsel said. Besides, there were “inward transactions” from several foreign countries for buying 2G licences, allotted on January 10, 2008 under the direct supervision of former telecom minister A. Raja, the report indicated.