New IPL team owners Sun TV still under CBI scanner

The Kalanithi Maran owned Sun TV acquired the Hyderabad franchise yesterday with a winning bid of 85.05 cr per year.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation is closing in on former communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran in the 2G spectrum case.

While investigations in India are complete, the CBI is awaiting reply to the letter rogatory (LRs, or requests for information)sent to Malaysia in August. In October, the Malaysian government had sought certain clarifications from the CBI which have since been sent. A final reply from the Malaysian government is now awaited.

The case against Maran is that he forced C Sivasankaran, former owner of Aircel, to sell his stake to Malaysia-bases Maxis Group by delaying Aircel’s requests for new circles and spectrum. The CBI’s FIR against Maran says Maxis Group paid for this help from Maran by investing more than Rs 725 crore in companies of the_Sun TV_Group, owned by the Maran family, at inflated valuations.

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[caption id=“attachment_503690” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The Sun TV logo[/caption]

Maran also reportedly awarded spectrum and several telecom licences to Aircel after Maxis bought it. In return, Maran received Rs 550 crore as quid pro quo investment in Sun Direct TV.The payment was made allegedly by overvaluing Sun Direct’s shares, and the CBI says the gross overvaluation was deliberate and malafide.

Interestingly Maran faces charges similar to those against former Telecom Minister A Raja - who is said to have favoured Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless. The money trail linking Swan’s licences allegedly led to Kalaignar TV, owned by Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal and daughter, Kanimozhi, for which the latter did time in jail. But the money trail is not that straightforward, as Kanimozhi says that the amount in question was actually a loan that was since returned.

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CBI sources say that Maran’s case is actually simpler than Raja’s because it is easier to establish a quid pro quo. The CBI’s case is that Maran forced C Sivasankaran to sell Aircel to Maxis of Malaysia, and once this happened, the Malaysian Maxis Group invested in Maran’s family company - Sun Direct TV, the direct-to-home arm of the Sun TV group run by his brother Kalanithi.

Maran had allegedly favoured Maxis Communication by clearing seven spectrum deals. After that, Maxis’ sister concern, Astro, invested Rs 629 crore at the rate of Rs 69.57 per share and bought a 20 percent stakes in Sun Direct.

In contrast, Maran’s brother Kalanithi invested about Rs 79 crore at the rate of Rs 10 a share to buy 80 percent in the company. So calculating the ‘bribe’ amount on a pro rata basis, Astro pumped in an additional Rs 550 crore for favours showered by Maran, the CBI FIR alleges.

CBI feels that Astro may have kept the Malaysian government in the dark about this deal of ‘unequals’. Thus Astro All Asia invested the Malaysian government’s money in the Maran family’s business for receiving favours in the telecom sector, the CBI alleges.

A major reason for the delay in investigations against Maran is that the CBI has sent Letters Rogatory to the Malaysian government on investments made by Maxis Communication in the Maran family’s business in India. Maxis Group company Astro All Asia Networks, which invested in Sun Direct, is part-owned by the Malaysian government.

Meanwhile, one of the main petitioners in the 2G scam has absolved Maran of wrongdoing even before the CBI can complete its investigations and file a charge-sheet. The Telecom Watchdog’s Anil Kumar has stuck his neck out and given a clean chit to Maran in 30-page affidavit filed before the Supreme Court. Kumar maintains that the earlier stance taken by him was wrong and, in the light of new documents and facts, there is no quid pro quo case against Dayanidhi Maran. Anil Kumar’s affidavit also holds that the CBI is also wrong in its ongoing investigations against Dayanidhi Maran.

The affidavit is controversial because the Supreme Court will now have to consider which of Anil Kumar’s two statements to give importance to.

The other two petitioners in the 2G case - Prashant Bhushan and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta - however, do not agree with Anil Kumar. They say that Anil Kumar has given a clean chit to Dayanidhi Maran in his individual capacity and they don’t seek to withdraw their petition against Maran.

The CBI, for its part, has already pleaded in the Supreme Court that it should be allowed to investigate Anil Kumar as well, due to the change in his stance.