New Delhi:
Last year he was on the Forbes list of India's 100 richest people. His estimated net worth at the time, of US $1 billion, got him there - the youngest billionaire on the list.
Today, Shahid Balwa is a trending topic on the Web. His alleged involvement in the 2G scam got him there. Balwa's DB Realty had floated Swan Telecom which former Telecom Minister A Raja allegedly favoured in spectrum allocation.
Balwa was arrested from his Mumbai home on Tuesday. The fourth arrest in the country's biggest scam.
Balwa's rise to the billionaire's club has been nothing short of meteoric. And mysterious. A small-town Gujarat boy, he moved to Mumbai with his family to run a restaurant, became a hotelier and then partnered with Vinod Goenka to form DB (Dynamics Balwa) Realty in 2007.
Four years later, DB Realty is a Rs 2000-crore real estate behemoth.
His partner Vinod Goenka featured on last year's Forbes richest list too - a little richer than Balwa. Their firm claims it has 61 million square feet being developed under several premium ongoing projects, including the 135-storey India Tower in South Mumbai that will house a Park Hyatt Hotel.
In 2008, Balwa's Swan Telecom bagged 2G licences for 13 of the 22 circles across India, circles that included crucial Mumbai and Delhi areas, for a paltry Rs 1,537 crore. Within months it sold 45% stake to UAE-based Etisalat for Rs 4,500 crore.
Swan had made a killing even before launching a single service. Swan is now called DB Etisalat.
Balwa is said to be a fitness fanatic, is married and has two children. He is believed to be politically connected and close to former Telecom Minister A Raja, who too was recently arrested in connection with the 2G scam.
CBI sources say it now has evidence that A Raja gave Balwa an undervalued spectrum deal. In return, Balwa allegedly channelised kickbacks Raja got from the spectrum sale into the real estate.
Investigating agencies are also looking at Rs 214 crore invested by Balwa's company in Kalaignar TV, a Chennai media company owned by DMK party members close to Raja.
In his defence, Balwa has said that he had applied for spectrum very early on and that he was among the earliest players to bid for it. And that finally, when it was allotted, he got a raw deal and suffered losses.