2G: Dayanidhi Maran in big trouble, will DMK show karuna?

Chennai, Mar 15: Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran over Aircel-Maxis deal. Maran has been asked to appear before the ED on Mar 20.

ED summon came at a time when DMK supremo and Karunanidhi seems to be engaged in the war of words over the Sri Lankan atrocities on Tamils during war. However, many would be interested to see whether Karunanidhi will come forward to help Maran or not.

The ED earlier had filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) that is related to the alleged illegal gratification of about Rs 550 crore allegedly received by the Maran brothers in the Aircel-Maxis deal.

Dayanidhi Maran had quit from the post of Union Telecom Minister after his name surfaced in the scam. He is alleged to have favoured Malaysian firm Maxis over Aircel in granting telecom licences in 2004-05. Maran had however denied all the allegations. The CBI is currently probing the case that involves Dayanidhi and his brother Kalanidhi, who is the MD of Sun TV.

The investigative agency is also probing if the Marans flouted foreign exchange rules in this deal as it registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), an equivalent of the FIR.

In the course of the investigation, the CBI has also registered a case against former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh, then Deputy Director General J R Gupta and few telecom companies for alleged irregularities in the grant of additional 2G spectrum during 2001-03, ie...during the NDA regime. The ED will also record the statements of those named in the ECIR.

OneIndia News