Make public reasons for not charging Ambani brothers: CIC to CBI

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has directed the CBI to make public reasons for not including names of top Indian industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani in the ISD call re-routing case in which some top executives of Reliance Infocomm were named accused.

Last year, the CBI has filed a charge sheet against Manoj Modi and five others in a case relating to masking of international calls as local by Reliance Infocomm when it was controlled by Mukesh Ambani-led RIL.

RTI applicant P C Srivastava had sought to know from the CBI the reasons for not making Anil Ambani and Mukesh Ambani as accused in the case relating to alleged manipulation and tampering of calling lines identification of ISD calls by Reliance Infocomm Ltd and thereby passing off international calls as local ones.

The agency refused to disclose the information saying doing so would adversely affect its prosecution in the case.

When the matter reached the transparency panel, the CBI told information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi that the reasons for not prosecuting the Ambanis were on record.

"However, disclosing such information would provide clues to other persons accused in the said case by which they would be able to argue why they should also not be charged," the CBI officials told the Commission.

Rejecting the arguments, Gandhi said CBI officials "have not been able to justify how disclosing the information would impede the process of prosecution of offenders" hence information sought by applicant should be provided before June 20.