S P O T L I G H T

Bharat Shah’s plea
Mumbai, August 5
Diamond magnate and film financier Bharat Shah, facing trial for his alleged nexus with Karachi-based underworld don Chhota Shakeel, has filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court seeking permission for travel to Belgium to attend his niece’s wedding next month. According to Shah’s counsel Vibhav Krishna, his client filed the SLP last Friday praying for the return of his passport which was surrendered to the investigating officer on April 6 as a condition laid down by the Supreme Court while granting bail. UNI

Airtel joins price war
New Delhi, August 5
Close on the heels of arch-rivals Hutchison Essar, Bharti’s mobile brand AirTel today announced that it, too, was going free on incoming calls from any mobile across India for a fixed monthly rental. To top it up, Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti, which has invested Rs 130 crore for its initial mobile expansion, also announced that roaming charges on AirTel networks across the country would be nil. This much-expected move comes after Hutch — the brand name for Hutchison Essar — mobile operators in Delhi and Mumbai last week announced making incoming calls from its network free of cost, virtually triggering off a price war. UNI