Sunday, April 10 2005 11:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The CBI is examining the alleged re-routing of international calls as local ones by Reliance Infocomm and some other telecom service providers to find out if it had any national security implications.

Such in-house probes are conducted by the investigating agency before proceeding with a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) report thereafter a court case, if warranted. The probe is done on the basis of what is known in its parlance as a "secret information report".

The step was necessitated after Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had termed the re-routing of the international calls as a threat to the national security.

A three-member bench of TDSAT headed by Chairman Justice D P Wadhwa in March dismissed a Reliance Infocomm petition challenging the Government decision to impose a penalty of Rs 150 crore for breaching the license conditions, saying the breach has put the "security of the nation in jeopardy."

The SIR is aimed at carrying out an in-house probe of whether the re-routing was a criminal violation endangering national security.

No one from CBI was willing to come on record on this issue. Sources in the agency said the files submitted by Department of Telecom in connection with the scam to the tune of hundreds of crores in re-routing of international calls allegedly involving Reliance Infocomm and some other top private telecom operators were being thoroughly looked into and a legal opinion was also sought from the experts.