Maran brothers discharged in Aircel-Maxis case
The court found no ground to proceed against Marans and the rest of the accused.
New Delhi, Feb 2: Former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran were discharged in the Aircel-Maxis case. have been discharged in the Aircel-Maxis case. The Patiala House court discharged them and the other accused in both cases that were probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.
The
court
was
to
frame
charges
against
former
telecom
minister,
Dayanidhi
and
his
brother
Kalanithi.
The
court
however
found
no
ground
to
proceed
against
Maran
and
the
rest
of
the
accused.
The
court
also
cited
the
lack
of
evidence
while
passing
the
order.
The
ED
had
alleged
that
two
firms,
South
Asia
FM
Limited
and
Sun
Direct
TV
Private
Ltd
had
received
Rs
742.58
crore
as
proceeds
of
the
crime
from
Mauritius
based
firms.
The
two
firms
were
then
allegedly
controlled
by
Kalainithi,
the
investigation
had
claimed.
In this case, the ED had also chargesheeted Kalanithi's wife Kavery, managing director of South Asia FM Ltd K Shanmugam, SAFL and Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The case filed by the CBI accused Dayanidhi of pressurising Chennai based telecom promoter C Shivasankaran to sell his stakes in Aircel and two subsidiary firms to Maxis group. The accused had however denied these charges in court.
In
the
chargesheet
the
CBI
had
apart
from
the
Maran
brothers
named
Ralph
Marshall,
T
Ananda
Krishnan,
M/s
Sun
Direct
TV
(P)
Ltd,
M/s
Astro
All
Asia
Networks
Plc,
UK,
M/s
Maxis
Communications
Berhad,
Malaysia,
M/s
South
Asia
Entertainment
Holdings
Ltd,
Malaysia
and
then
additional
secretary
(telecom)
late
J
S
Sarma.
Reacting
to
the
verdict
a
relieved
Dayanidhi
Maran
said,
"Very
happy
with
the
order.
Let
me
absorb
this
news.
It
is
a
big
moment,
let
us
savour
it."
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had taken strong exception to the fact that the owner of the Malaysian firm Axis, Ananda Krishnan had not honoured the summons issued by the court after the CBI had filed a chargesheet in the Aircel-Maxis scam. The court had restrained Maxis from earning any revenue from Aircel-Maxis's 65 million mobile phone connections till further orders. This case is likely to be heard on Friday.
OneIndia News