2G scam: CBI raids Dayanidhi Maran's house, files FIR

Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran’s houses in Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi were raided by the CBI this morning in connection with the Aircel-Maxis deal.

The CBI team of eight officials reached Maran’s Boat Club residence in south Chennai around 7.30 am. In fact, a few top officers waited for about 20 minutes outside Maran’s residence as the security guard told them he had no orders to let them in. Later, one of Maran’s relatives opened the door.

The CBI team is also present at Maran’s office in Chennai.

The CBI has asked the telecommunication department to provide them with technical details of the alleged set-up connecting Sun TV office and Maran’s residence.

According to the agency sources, 323 residential lines were in the name of BSNL general manager allegedly connecting Maran’s Boat House residence with the office of Sun TV through a dedicated underground cable during Maran’s tenure as telecom minister.

Meanwhile, DMK sources said they are not surprised that the CBI is raiding the residences of Maran. They said news about investigating the Marans has been doing the rounds for a long time and that Marans are capable of handling the allegations on their own.

The CBI also raided Apollo Group’s Sunita Reddy’s residence. Sunita though has not been named in the FIR filed by CBI.

On Sunday, an FIR was filed against Maran and his brother Kalanidhi, 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.

The CBI claims Rs 600 cr bribe was given to the Maran brothers. A case has been filed against them. The CBI said Maran delayed licenses to Aircel.

“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 9 October. Searches were conducted at Delhi and Chennai,” CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said.

Meanwhile, Varun Gandhi tweeted: “Dayanidhi Maran FIR long overdue, but still welcome move. You cannot use a Central ministry to fund a family business empire.”

Reacting to the raids on the Marans, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy said he was not surprised by the raids but by the delay in conducting them by the CBI.

Political commentator and Thuglak Editor Cho Ramaswamy said, “It won’t be long before the 2G trail leads to DMK chief Karunanidhi’s door.Dayanidhi Maran is the father of spectrum. Raja of course nurtured it.”

Expressing fear that the CBI may be directed to botch up the case, Ramaswamy said, “What is happening to Maran is not going to greatly worry Karunanidhi. He may feel confident that with his contacts and established reputation with the Congress leadership he may be able to do something and save everybody including himself.”

The CBI on 14 September quizzed Maran for over five hours on alleged irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation during his tenure.

In the same week, the agency had also questioned his brother Kalanidhi in connection with the preliminary enquiry in spectrum allocation during 2001-07 and allegations of pushing for Aircel takeover by Malaysia-based Maxis group.

During the questioning, Maran is understood to have denied all the allegations against him including his role in the Aircel takeover by Maxis, they said. 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 the Maran family.

The CBI also informed the Supreme Court then that during Maran’s tenure there was “deliberate delay” to provide letter of intent to Sivasankaran.

The agency had said 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, the agency claimed.

It was contended that Marshall had held meetings with the telecom minister in office between 2005-06 on two to three occasions.

Sivasankaran had alleged that his applications for licences were rejected when Maran was the 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.

Watch video of CBI raiding Maran’s residence