Supreme Court issues contempt notice to Subroto Roy

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The Supreme Court on Friday issued a contempt of court notice to Sahara India managing director Subroto Roy and two others on a petition alleging interference in the ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation into the 2G spectrum scam.

The bench of justices G.H. Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly said the threat to publish a series of stories by Sahara Samay about Rajeshwar Singh, assistant director ED, came after the agency sent summons to Roy.

The court said it was prima facie satisfied that an attempt had been made to interfere with the investigation into 2G telephone spectrum scam being carried out by investigating officer Rajeshwar Singh. The court restrained Sahara Samay and its channel from carrying out any story relating to Rajeshwar Singh in respect of the 25 questions it had sent to him.

"The nexus is more than apparent between the issuance of summons and threat to run series of stories," the court said. ED says Roy did not turn up before it for questioning despite its repeated notices. It also says Roy's newspaper published an item about Rajeshwar Singh, pointing fingers at him. According to the ED, Roy's Sahara Group transferred 150 crores to Swan Telecom allegedly in connection with the 2G scam, which relates to alleged irregularities in the allocation of spectrum to telecom companies.