New Delhi, April 2 – The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday attached assets worth Rs.742 crore of former telecom minister and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran in Aircel-Maxis case in which they are accused along with six others.
On August 29 last year, the CBI had filed a chargesheet which contained the names of 151 prosecution witnesses and a set of 655 documents, on which it has relied upon during its probe.
The 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.
The Malaysian firm was favoured by Maran and granted licence within six months after the takeover of Aircel in December 2006, it had said. In its chargesheet, the CBI had named Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran, T. Ananda Krishnan, Malaysian national Augustus Ralph Marshall and four firms — Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd,
Maxis Communication Berhad, South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd and Astro All Asia Network PLC — as accused in the case. They have been chargesheeted for the offences punishable under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
-INDIA TODAY
