Aircel-Maxis scam: Special court drops all charges against Maran brothers

A Special CBI court today dropped all charges against the former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and others in the Aircel-Maxis scam. Maran brothers had been accused of helping Malaysian group Maxis to acquire Aircel in exchange for a kickback..Special CBI judge OP Saini held that the entire case is based on misreading of official files and contradictory statements of witnesses and acquitted all the accused..The CBI had filed a chargesheet in August 2014 against Dayanidhi Maran, Kalanithi Maran, Maxis owner T. Ananda Krishnan, and four companies—Sun Direct TV, Astro All Asia Networks Plc, Maxis Communications Berhad, and South Asia Entertainment Holdings Ltd, Malaysia..CBI had alleged that Dayanidhi Maran, the then Telecom Minister, had abused his official position, and deliberately delayed the grant of licenses and other approvals in seven service areas pending before Department of Telecommunications (DoT)..All these licenses related to Aircel and were allegedly delayed on frivolous grounds with an intent to force its exit from telecom business by constricting the business environment..It was alleged by the CBI that Dayanidhi Maran, had used his influence as Telecom Minister to help Malaysian businessman TA Ananda Krishnan to buy Aircel by pressurising its owner Sivasankaran to sell his stake. The CBI also alleged that after the change of ownership, the applications pending before the DoT were smoothly approved..The Court today acquitted all the accused concluding in its order that,.“I am satisfied that the entire case is based on the misreading of the official files, contradictory statements of the witnesses as well as speculations and surmises of Sh. C. Sivasankaran. I have no hesitation in recording no prima facie case warranting framing of charge against any of the accused is made out.”.A slew of Senior Advocates appeared in the case for various parties..Dayanidhi Maran was represented by Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and RS Cheema along with advocates Sushil Bajaj, Sumesh Dhawan, Vatsala Kak, Tarannum Cheema and Tannya Baranwal..Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Rebecca John along with advocates Maninder Singh, Anirban Bhattacharya, Shikher Deep Aggarwal, Abhishek Gupta and Chahat Chawla appeared for Kalanithi Maran..Senior advocates Parag Tripathi appeared for the accused company – Sun Direct TV..Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas represented South Asia Entertainment Holdings with a team led by Managing Partner Pallavi Shroff along with Partners Anuj Berry and Misha, Senior Associate Malak Bhatt and Associate Maneka Khanna. The SAM Team was led by Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, and Advocates Siddharth Aggarwal and Neeraj Chaudhari. .Senior Advocate Anand Grover appeared for CBI along with Senior Public prosecutors KK Goel and AK Rao..Read the order below.