CBI books Maran brothers in Aircel-Maxis deal

Chennai/New Delhi, Oct 10 (PTI) India's Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) on Monday conducted raids at the
premises of former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran after
registering a case against him in connection with the
controversial Aircel-Maxis deal.
The agency has also booked his brother Kalanidhi Maran,
Maxis owner T Ananda Krishnan, senior executive Ralph Marshall
and three companies Aspro, Maxis and Sun TV in the case on
charges of criminal conspiracy under IPC and Prevention of
Corruption Act.
After registering the case, the agency carried out
searches at the premises of Maran brothers in Delhi and
Chennai.
"CBI has registered case against Maran brothers, Ralph
Marshall and T Anandkrishnan and three companies under section
120b of IPC read with 13(2) with 13 (1)(d) and also section 7
and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Case was
registered on October 9. Searches were conducted at Delhi and
Chennai," CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said here.
It has been alleged by former Aircel Chief C
Sivasankaran that Maran as the then Telecom Minister favoured
Maxis-group in the takeover of his company and in return
investments were made by the company through Astro network in
Sun TV owned by Maran family.
The CBI, in its recent status report to the Supreme
Court, had said that during Maran's tenure there was
"deliberate delay" to provide letter of intent to
Sivasankaran.
The agency had said that after Aircel was sold to Maxis
investments were made by the Malaysian firm into the family
business of Marans.
Former aides of Maran had reportedly told CBI that the
processing of the files of Sivasankaran was delayed allegedly
at the direction of the minister, agency sources claimed.
Maran had refuted the allegations.
It was also contended that Marshall held meetings with
the telecom minister between 2005 and 2006.
Sivasankaran had alleged that his applications for
licences were rejected when Maran was telecom minister in
2006, forcing him to sell his company to Maxis, whose owner is
considered to be close to Maran and his brother Kalanidhi, who
owns Sun TV.
Later, Maran is alleged to have granted 14 licences to
Dishnet Wireless (Aircel) during his tenure as the telecom
minister. The allegations have been refuted by Maran.
CBI is looking into financial transactions of Sun TV and
Maxis. Besides, it is also looking into various aspects of
takeover of Aircel by Maxis group, the sources said.
The probe agency has already registered a preliminary
enquiry on issues in 2G spectrum allocation between 2001-07
and is actively looking into matter. PTI ABS
AGL