Speeding up its probe into the Aircel deal, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday questioned Ralph Marshall, a top director in Malaysia-based telecom firm Maxis.
Sources in the CBI said Mr. Marshall, who enjoys number two position in Maxis, was quizzed about the Aircel deal and his alleged links with the former Telecom Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, and his brother Kalanithi Maran, who heads the Sun television network. The questioning focussed on the alleged connections of the Maran brothers with the Malaysian firm even before it took over Aircel.
After registering a preliminary enquiry (PE), the CBI is probing the allegation that Mr. Dayanidhi Maran as Telecom Minister had deliberately delayed giving licences to Aircel and pressured its promoter C. Sivasankaran into selling the firm to the Maxis group, owned by T. Ananda Krishnan in March 2006.
The CBI is yet to convert the PE into a full-fledged Regular Case (RC).
Last week, the CBI told the Supreme Court that it had not given a clean chit to Mr. Dayanidhi Maran in the Aircel deal. The agency told the court that it was still probing the alleged role of Mr. Maran in the deal. The CBI had also objected to the charge that its probe in the matter was “less than honest.”
The CBI said there was prima facie evidence that during Mr. Dayanidhi Maran's tenure, there was a deliberate delay in granting the letter of intent to Aircel [when Mr. Sivasankaran was the owner], and that undue favour was allegedly shown to Aircel after it was taken over by Maxis. However, till now it had not found evidence regarding an element of coercion on the part of Mr. Maran, the CBI said.
The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), an NGO and a petitioner in the 2G spectrum scam case, had alleged that soon after Aircel got the licences in December 2006, its owner Maxis made investments in Mr. Dayanidhi Maran's family-owned business, thereby showing quid pro quo for getting the licences. However, Mr. Maran had repeatedly denied all charges.
The CBI is also looking at e-mails that point a finger at a possible Maxis-Maran nexus. E-mail exchanges between the original promoter of Aircel, the chairman of Maxis and the managing director of Standard Chartered Bank have raised questions about a possible nexus between Maxis and Mr. Dayanidhi Maran in the spectrum scam. The agency has already quizzed Standard Chartered officials.
The sources said that during talks for sale of Aircel by its original promoter Sivasankaran to Ananda Krishnan-promoted Maxis, the latter had reportedly offered to take the ‘responsibility' to obtain approvals for pending licences and spectrum.
In an offer made in November 2005, Maxis also took the responsibility of obtaining investment approvals from the Centre. “Approvals for investment, [is the] responsibility of buyer (Maxis); approvals for pending licences made by AL (Aircel Ltd), ACL (Aircel Communications Limited) or DWL (Dishnet Wireless Limited), [will be the] joint responsibility of buyer and seller,” Maxis director Ralph Marshall had written to Mr. Sivasankaran in a November 16, 2005 e-mail.
All the three firms — ACL, AL and DWL — were owned by Mr. Sivasankaran. Two days later, Standard Chartered Bank [the banker to the deal] MD Prahalad Shantigram mentioned the same points in an e-mail to Mr. Sivasankaran, a copy of which was marked to Mr. Marshall.
After the Rs. 4,813-crore sale of the firm to Mr. Krishnan in March 2006, Aircel got all the pending licences within seven months. The approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board also took less than two months of applying.
