The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday submitted in the Supreme Court it would file a first information report (FIR) against the former Union Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, in the next few days in the case relating to the sale of Aircel to the Malaysia-based Maxis Group as there was enough evidence in the preliminary enquiry (PE).
Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, gave this information in the status report submitted to the court in a sealed cover. He read out the relevant portions before a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly hearing the 2G spectrum case.
Mr. Venugopal said the CBI was in the process of converting the PE into an FIR in the next few days. Offences such as undue favour and quid pro quo would be included in the FIR against Mr. Maran and others. Letters rogatory (LRs) were sent to Mauritius.
Meanwhile, an application filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation alleged that Mr. Maran, who resigned as Textiles Minister, had “arm-twisted” Aircel owner C. Sivasankaran to sell his 74 per cent stake to the Maxis group of Malaysia. It explained how the Chennai-based Aircel was applying with the Department of Telecommunications for UAS licences from March 2004.
The application said Mr. Maran, as Telecom Minister, delayed the award of licences to the company by raising irrelevant issues. As on March 3, 2006, 14 applications from Aircel were pending in the DoT for licences. Mr. Sivasankaran wrote to Mr. Maran several times to resolve these issues, but nothing moved.
A harassed Sivasankaran was forced to sell Aircel, the application said. In March 2006, the Maxis group, owned by Malaysian business tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan, bought 74 per cent stake. The company got the Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval in May 2006. In November 2006, the DoT issued 14 LoIs (Letters of Intent) to Aircel, and all of them were converted into licences in December 2006.
