The Ruia brothers of the Essar group and key executives of Loop Mobile are expected to be charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation in ten days in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam, a highly placed source in the investigating agency said.

“This week, attorney general Goolam Vahanvati gave us the go-ahead to charge-sheet the Ruias and others. We will act on it in the next ten days," the source told Governance Now.

Loop Mobile, which got a telecom licence, has been under the CBI scanner. The CBI suspects Loop to be a front company of the Essar group. It was set up to enable Essar group to bid for the 2G spectrum sale because Essar, already being a major telecom operator (Vodafone-Essar) was otherwise not qualified to bid. Rules don't permit one company to have more than 10% share-holding in two telecom firms.  While Essar claims that it held only 2.15% of the shares in Loop (and hence Loop was eligible for spectrum), the CBI believes that Loop is an Essar front set up blind side the law.

CBI officials argue that Loop was in fact formed by Essar only to secure a 2G licence. The agency had to seek the attorney general’s opinion on the charge-sheet against the Ruias, as there was a rift in the corporate affairs ministry on whether Loop could be considered an Essar associate or not. With the attorney general now agreeing unequivocally with its view, the CBI is readying to file the charge-sheet soon.

Loop got the license when A Raja was minister of telecommunications.