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CBI says probe against Maran not over yet

Last Updated 08 September 2011, 18:22 IST

The probe agency also denied the charge that its investigation was “less than honest”.
Senior advocate K K Venugopal submitted before a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly that the CBI has not given a clean chit to Maran in connection with the March 2006 deal relating to sale of Aircel to Malaysian-based Maxis group.

“We have said that the inquiry conducted so far has not revealed element of coercion on the part of Maran. The inquiry prima facie revealed that the Malaysian firm was in contact with the minister and his brother prior to the takeover of the company from C Sivasankaran,” he said.

“I want to clear the air. There has been misinterpretation and misreporting (on the status report of the CBI,” he said.

Venugopal was referring to the media reports on the CBI’s status report filed in the apex court on September 2.

He then read the portion of the report.

His remarks prompted the bench to advise the media to exercise some caution in reporting. “Please don’t give twists and turns.

It is worse than the breaking news (phenomenon),” the bench said.

Venugopal vehemently opposed the submission of Prashant Bhushan, counsel for Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), terming the CBI probe as “less than honest”.

He termed the remarks as “unfair” and sought the direction of court for expunging it.
“This is most unfortunate. We are carrying out orders of the Supreme Court in probing the case,” he said.

The bench, however, said that it would have to hear Bhushan first before taking any decision on  expunging the particular remark.

Bhushan, on the other hand, stuck to his observation referring to CBI’s act of not filing any chargesheet against Reliance’s Anil Ambani for alleged involvement in putting up front company Swan Telecom.

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(Published 08 September 2011, 11:18 IST)

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