CBI to examine minutes of Aircel-Maxis meeting

The CBI may examine the minutes of the December 2005 board meeting of Aircel that approved the controversial transfer of its stake to Maxis, which is likely to submit its side of the story.

Maxis is likely to submit documents regarding the transfer of stake to claim that it is on the right side of the law as Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi recently cleared the filing of charge sheet against former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanidhi.

The Marans are accused of coercing Aircel owner C Sivasankaran to sell his stake to Maxis, owned by Malaysian businessman T Ananda Krishnan. The Malaysian businessman later invested Rs 650 crore in Sun TV network, run by the Marans. Maxis may present the minutes of the board meeting on December 19, 2005, when it cleared the transaction.

Sources said Maxis management would argue that the deal was on the right side of the law and support their argument by submitting the copy of minutes of the meeting.

CBI officials said they were not aware of the moves by Maxis and during the course of investigation, if they get more inputs, they will look into it without any prejudice. The AG’s decision has brought renewed focus on the case. The issue was pending with the AG’s office for the past nine months, as the then AG G E Vahanvati did not take a call on it.

With Rohatgi clearing the path for filing the charge sheet, pressure is building up on the CBI to probe the role of former finance minister P Chidambaram who cleared the deal.