Mumbai, May 11: Datacom Solutions Pvt Ltd — the Videocon-owned telecom company — is in the eye of a storm over its shareholding pattern.

Ajay Chakrabarty, five-time CPI MP from Basirhat, has stirred a controversy by sending a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that Mukesh Ambani owns a 13.5 per cent stake in Datacom through close associate Manoj Modi and an elaborate layered structure.

In his six-page letter written on April 29, Chakrabarty claims that Mukesh Ambani owns the indirect stake in Datacom through two 100 per cent owned subsidiaries — Systems Management Services Pvt Ltd and Dhanishta Commercial Pvt Ltd.

A spokesman for Reliance Industries tonight rubbished Chakrabarty’s contentions. “These are part of a series of baseless and motivated allegations,” the spokesman added.

Videocon group chairman Venugopal Dhoot declined to comment.

“I am busy with the elections; call me after the 16th,” Chakrabarty told The Telegraph tonight while confirming that he had written the letter to the Prime Minister.

Chakrabarty claimed in his letter that Datacom had hoodwinked the government by failing to disclose the real shareholding pattern of the company. “On paper, Datacom was always disclosed to be a joint venture between the Videocon Group owned by the Dhoots and the HFCL group owned by (Mahendra) Nahata and (Vinay) Maloo,” the letter said.

The MP claimed that Mukesh Ambani could not have acquired the stake directly “as he has a non-compete agreement for the telecom business with his brother Anil Ambani and so he acquired this stake through a frontman, Manoj Modi, who is a senior executive of Reliance Industries Limited”.

He has also outlined the shareholding structure of Datacom to drive home the point that Mukesh Ambani holds a stake in Datacom through Manoj Modi.

The letter says the Videocon group holds 64 per cent in Datacom, while Jumbo Techno Services Pvt Ltd holds 36 per cent in the telecom company. Jumbo Techno in turn is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Senior Consulting Private Ltd.

Sunvision Engineering Co. Private Ltd holds 62.5 per cent in Senior Consulting. Sunvision is an HFCL group company owned presumably by Nahata and Vinay Maloo, the letter added.

According to the MP, the remaining 37.5 per cent of Senior Consulting—which owns Jumbo Techno — is held by Dhanishta Commercial Private Ltd.

Dhanishta is 100 per cent owned by Manoj Modi through System Management Services Private Ltd.

The MP’s investigations show Dhanishta holds the above stake for the benefit of a Radhakrishna Trust and that no public records were available for this trust.

The letter buttresses its claim by stating that the directors of Dhanishta are Reliance CFO L.V. Merchant and another senior RIL executive K.R. Raja.

Besides, Manoj Modi’s brother Jayant and Satish Parikh, an employee of an RIL group company, are directors of System Management.

Chakrabarty demanded that the government cancel the pan-India telecom licence issued to Datacom and the 4.4Mhz of free spectrum with the licence.