2G: SC asks NGO to explain its U-turn on Maran's role

The Supreme Court today took exception to an NGO's conduct of writing to the CBI, giving clean chit to former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran in the Aircel-Maxis deal.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday took exception to an NGO's conduct of writing to the CBI, giving clean chit to former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran in the Aircel-Maxis deal.

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Maran is facing the CBI probe for coercing a businessman into selling his stake in Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis Group. The agency initiated the investigation subsequent to the allegations made by two NGOs, Telecom Watchdog and Centre for Public Interest and Litigation, before the SC in the 2G scam case.

However, in a recent letter written by Telecom Watchdog's secretary Anil Kumar claimed there was no evidence against Maran to prove that he forced Chennai-based promoter C Sivasankaran to sell his stake in Aircel to Maxis in 2006. Instead, he accused the businessman of cooking up a story against the former minister to extort money from Maxis.

A special bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice KS Radhakrishnan took serious note of Kumar's conduct and directed Kumar to file an affidavit detailing reasons for the U-turn. The directive came after CBI counsel KK Venugopal informed the court about the letter. Kumar apparently also wrote an article in a magazine, giving clean chit to Maran.

"After going through the contents of the letter written to the CBI, secretary of the Telecom Watchdog Kumar is directed to show as to under what circumstance he wrote a letter dated February 5, 2012 virtually exonerating Maran and accusing Sivasankaran within seven days," the bench said.