A petition was filed on Thursday in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prevent Aircel Maxis company from selling its stake/equity or spectrum and to attach its assets.
The application filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Pranav Sachdeva, said the CBI has filed a detailed charge sheet against Aircel/Maxis, its Malaysian owner Ananda Krishnan, the former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, etc, in connection with the 2G Spectrum scam.
The ED has also filed cases against them and has attached properties of Mr. Maran, it said.
The CPIL, which was a petitioner in the legal battle concerning the 2G Spectrum scam before the Supreme Court, submitted that “when action has been taken against the former Minister Dayanidhi Maran, another accused in the case, there was no reason why no action has been taken against Mr. Ananda Krishnan and M/s Maxis.”
“However, it is strange and disturbing that while properties of former Telecom Minister and Sun Direct TV are being attached, the assets of Aircel/Maxis in India have not been attached. This has happened despite the fact that Maxis and its owner have evaded summons issued by the Special Court and have not appeared before the Court,” the application alleged.
The application alleged that the company Aircel/Maxis was “attempting to quickly sell off its allotted spectrum, which is a precious natural resource belonging to the people of India, to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications for thousands of crores, and exit the market with huge sums of money.”
“If the deal between Aircel and Bharti Airtel and the deal between Aircel and Reliance Communications are allowed to go through, then that would allow Maxis to escape the arm of law and abscond with thousands of crores of money,” it alleged.
