2G scam: Dayanidhi Maran may be questioned soon

The CBI is likely to question former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran in connection with alleged favours shown to by him in spectrum allocation to some telecom companies as alleged by former Aircel chief C Sivasankaran.

Maran may be asked to give his clarification on the allegations levelled by Sivasankaran and spectrum policy changes made during his tenure during UPA-I after CBI registers an FIR in the case, official sources said.

The CBI has already registered a preliminary enquiry to look into the spectrum allocation during the period 2001-07 which spans across three telecom ministers -- Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie and Dayanidhi Maran, they said.

The agency is looking into financial transactions of Sun TV, owned by Maran family, and Malaysia-based Maxis. It is also looking into various aspects of takeover of Aircel by Maxis group, they said.

According to laid down procedure, the CBI registers a preliminary enquiry upon receiving any complaint and when anything substantial is discovered this enquiry is converted into a regular case.

Former telecom minister Arun Shourie, who held the charge between 2003-04, has already been questioned by the CBI on February 25 in detail about the allocation of telecom airwaves during his tenure but the agency "so far" has not found anything against him, they said.

The agency has registered a preliminary enquiry against "unknown persons" on Supreme Court's directive to detect any alleged anomaly in 'first-come-first-served' of cabinet during spectrum allocation between 2001-07.