Aircel-Maxis case: Court to pass order on summoning Marans, others

The special 2G court is likely to pronounce its order on Wednesday on whether to summon as accused former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and six others against whom charge sheet was filed by CBI in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini had on October 13 reserved for tomorrow his order on the issue of taking cognisance on CBI's charge sheet filed against Dayanidhi, Kalanithi and six others, including four firms.

Besides the Maran brothers, CBI has named Malaysian business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan, Malaysian national Augustus Ralph Marshall and four firms -- Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd, Maxis Communication Berhad, Astro All Asia Network PLC and South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd -- as accused.

Charge sheets have been filed for offences punishable under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

During arguments earlier, CBI had told the court that cognisance should be taken on the charge sheet as prima facie a case was made out against all the accused.

The agency had argued that the case involves investigation in foreign countries and there were sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused named in the charge sheet.

On August 29, the CBI had filed the charge sheet in the case containing the names of 151 CBI witnesses and a set of 655 documents, on which it has relied upon during its probe.

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.