CBI points finger at Maran, seeks more time

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its status report to the Supreme Court on Wednesday on the 2G scam has a pointed finger at Dayanidhi Maran, now the textiles minister, for sitting on Aircel's application for a spectrum licence as a consequence of which it was sold to Malaysian company Maxis.

The CBI also told an apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly that it needed time till Aug 31 to complete its investigation on the 2G spectrum scam.

Though the report was presented in a sealed envelope, the references to Maran became clear during the reading of its extracts by senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, who appeared for the CBI. Maran held the telecom portfolio 2004-07.

There are allegations that Maxis Communication bought 74 percent stake in Aircel and the company was later allotted more circles to operate in.

Also Read: Maran's telephone exchange and Amma's jewels 

Maxis Communication, through its subsidiary Astro, then invested around Rs.600 crore in Sun DTH belonging to the Sun TV Network owned by Maran's family, it has been alleged.

The CBI had April 2 filed its first chargesheet in the 2G spectrum scam. The chargesheet was filed in the special court of CBI judge O.P. Saini.

It named former communications minister A. Raja, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, Raja's aide R.K. Chandolia, Swan Telecom's Vinod Goenka, Unitech's Wireless Sanjay Chandra and three executives of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group -- Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.

In its April 25 supplementary chargesheet, the CBI named DMK chief M. Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV managing director Sharad Kumar as co-conspirators after it traced an illegal money trail of Rs.214 crore in the scam.

The supplementary chargesheet also named Karim Morani as well as Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal of Kusegaon Realty.