No framing of charges in Aircel case for 6th time

A special court on Tuesday deferred order on framing of charges against former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi and other accused in the Aircel-Maxis deal case for the sixth time in a row.

Special CBI Judge O P Saini fixed the hearing for February 2 saying the court’s order was still not ready.

Also, order on bail petitions of the accused will be passed on February 2.
The court had on January 18 fixed the hearing for January 24.

The order on the bail applications and framing of charges against the accused has been pending with the court for nearly two months.

“In view of the extremely voluminous and technical nature of the record, order not ready (sic). Put up the matter for order on charge and bail on December 19,” the special CBI judge had said while deferring the order for the first time on November 30.

The CBI has accused Dayanidhi of forcing Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell the stake in Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis Group, owned by Krishnan, under a criminal conspiracy in 2006. It has also claimed that the Maxis then made investments through Astro Network into Sun Direct TV Private Limited (SDTPL).

Besides the Maran brothers and SDTPL, Malaysia-based business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan, Malaysia-based firm Maxis Communication Berhad, Malaysian national and a top executive of the Maxis group Augustus Ralph Marshall, UK-based Astro All Asia Networks and Mauritius-based South Asia Entertainment Holding Limited are accused in the case.

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a separate charge sheet against all the accused for money laundering to the tune of Rs 742.58 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.