Aircel Maxis case: Marans, others to appear in court on Monday

New Delhi, Mar 1: Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and six others, including Malaysian business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan, are likely to appear as accused before a special 2G court on Monday in connection with the Aircel-Maxis deal case.

Special CBI judge O P Saini had on October 29 last year summoned these three and five others, including four firms, for tomorrow as accused after taking cognisance of the CBI's charge sheet filed in the case.

"On the perusal of the record, I am satisfied that there is enough incriminating material on record to proceed against the accused. Accordingly, I take cognisance of the case," the judge had said.

Besides the Maran brothers and Krishnan, CBI has named Malaysian national Augustus Ralph Marshall and four firms -- Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd, Maxis Communication Berhad, Astro All Asia Network PLC and South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd -- as accused in the case.

CBI has listed them in the charge sheet for the offences punishable under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The agency had earlier told the court that five of the eight accused were residing and based in different countries like Malaysia, Mauritius and the UK while the remaining three were based in Chennai.

On August 29 last year, the CBI had filed the charge sheet in the case containing the names of 151 prosecution witnesses and a set of 655 documents, on which it has relied upon during its probe.

CBI had alleged in the court that Dayanidhi Maran had "pressured" and "forced" Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell his stakes in Aircel and two subsidiary firms to Malaysian firm Maxis Group in 2006.

It argued that the case involves investigation in foreign countries and there were sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused named in the charge sheet.

PTI