There is some relief for the former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran in the 2 G spectrum allocation scam during the regime of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The CBI in its progress report submitted before the Supreme Court has claimed that there was prima facie no element of coercion found in the granting of licences issued between 2001 and 2007, thus it provided some relief to the former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
The agency also noted that the tenure of the former Telecom Minister Arun Shourie and Pramod Mahajan should be investigated and the then Finance Minister Jaswant Singh should be questioned.
CBI sources told the reporters that Maran has not been given a clean chit even though there is no evidence so as to prove that Aircel founder C Sivasankaran was coerced to sell his stakes to Malaysia's Maxis Communications. Morover he has alleged that he was forced to sell stake in Aircel after his applications for telecom licence was rejected in 2006.
Sources say that there is a strong case against Maran of showing out of turn favour in granting licences to Aircel after Maxis bought it and the agency is investigating if any money was paid in lieu of this favour.
The CBI also told the two bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly that Loop Telecom is a front compny for Essar and both the companies are guilty of cheating.
In its report the CBI also mentioned that licences granted during the tenure of former telecom minister Arun Shourie and Pramod Mahajan shoud be investigated and the then Finance Minister Jaswant Singh should be questioned with regard to this.
Janata Party President Subramanian Samy on whose petition the apex court had directed the CBI to investigate the scam said that the CBI revealed that they are investigating a possible scam during the tnure of Pramod Mahajan and Arun Shourie as telecom minister.
During the hearing on August 24, the CBI had informed the court that it has filed chargesheets against 17 persons including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi. It had said that a third chargesheet would be filed by September 15.
All the accused have pleaded that they have not done anything wrong and contested the charge of drawing illegal benefits in the 2G spectrum allocation.
The Supreme Court has been monitoring the investigations on the plea of an NGO, Center for Public Interest Litigation and Swamy.
News Reported by AR for Newsvision
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