Corruption case: CBI files charge sheet against Maran brothers, duo claim innocence

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Corruption case: CBI files charge sheet against Maran brothers, duo claim innocence

The Central Government has done a hat rick in striking against corruption..After arresting former Air force Chief & also seizing Rs 100 crores in cash & 100 kg of gold from Chennai where a top politician is involved, comes this CBI charge sheet against Maran brothers! Great going by the Center!!

Corruption case: CBI files charge sheet against Maran brothers, duo claim innocence Dec 10, 2016 01:15 IST
New Delhi

The CBI on Friday filed charges against former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his elder brother Kalanithi Maran and others in the illegal telephone exchange scam, which according to the agency caused a loss of more than 1.78 crore to the exchequer.



According to the CBI, the accused installed an illegal telephone exchange of 764-high speed telephone lines under service category, for which no bills were raised. The charge sheet also states that the lines were also wrongfully used by a private TV channel. The CBI has also named two then chief general managers of BSNL in the charge sheet.
The agency has claimed that between June 2004 and December 2006, 364 telephone lines were installed at Dayanidhi’s then residence in Chennai’s Gopalapuram. The charge sheet states that between December 2006 and September 2007 an additional 353 lines were installed at Ist Avenue Boat Club Road, the new address of the former union minister. The CBI has alleged that no bills were generated for these lines.
The investigation agency claimed that 10 postpaid mobile connections with vanity numbers were given to a television channel as per the verbal orders of the then minister and these connections were given under service category.These telephone lines were allegedly used by the television channel for its voice, video and data usage but no bills were raised. A loss of Rs 1,78,71,393 was incurred by BSNL and MTNL, Delhi.

 

[prasad1]

What ever happened to disproportionate asset case against Jayalaiita, Mayavati or others. Was any politician ever convicted and in jail for such crimes?

 

[prasad1]

[FONT=&quot]A special court in Delhi discharged on Thursday former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and others in the Aircel-Maxis deal cases lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]However, Thursday’s order would not have any effect on the two accused Malaysian nationals -- Ralph Marshall and T Ananda Krishnan -- as the court has already segregated the trial against them from that of Maran brothers and others.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The order was passed by special judge O P Saini who is exclusively dealing with the 2G spectrum allocation scam cases and those cases arising out of the investigation into it.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The CBI had filed a charge sheet against the Maran brothers, Ralph Marshall, T Ananda Krishnan, M/s Sun Direct TV (P) Ltd, M/s Astro All Asia Networks Plc, UK, M/s Maxis Communications Berhad, Malaysia, M/s South Asia Entertainment Holdings Ltd, Malaysia and then Additional Secretary (Telecom) J S Sarma who died during the course of the probe.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]They were chargesheeted for alleged offences punishable under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In the money laundering case, ED has chargesheeted the Maran brothers, Kalanithi’s wife Kavery, Managing Director of South Asia FM Ltd (SAFL) K Shanmugam, SAFL and Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd (SDTPL) under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Besides Maran brothers, the court discharged two companies - M/s Sun Direct TV (P) Ltd (SDTPL) and M/s South Asia Entertainment Holdings Ltd.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]During arguments on framing of charges, Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover had claimed that Dayanidhi had “pressurised” Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell his stakes in Aircel and two subsidiary firms to Malaysian firm Maxis Group in 2006.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The charge was strongly refuted by Dayanidhi. All the accused had denied the allegations against them made by the investigating agencies and had moved bail pleas.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/dayanidhi-maran-all-accused-discharged-in-aircel-maxis-case/story-HOt7VMPi7hpcv2BIUcOi4M.html


Mr. Vgane the floor is yours.[/FONT]

 

[vgane]

Mr. Vgane the floor is yours.

Disgusting! Who should now hang his/her head in shame! Should it be CBI or ED or the Judge or the Common man?

 

[prasad1]

CBI keeps investigating, but either they are corrupt or inefficient. No one who is someone ever gets convicted. So it looks like purely politics.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which was once considered an unbiased probing agency, has lost its sheen because of political interference, feel former CBI officers.
Joginder Singh, who headed the agency for 11 months in 1996 and monitored several high-profile cases including Bofors, St. Kitts, Hawala scam, JMM payoff and fodder scam, told The Sunday Guardian that political interference was something that the CBI was always exposed to. "Interferences do not come as plain instructions. Many times hindrances are created by vested agencies so that the investigation is affected, which ultimately leads to the weakening of the case," Singh said. He added that it's not always the CBI which weakens a case. Sometimes even other government agencies ensure that investigations are scuttled. But ultimately it is the CBI that faces public criticism, he said.

A former Union Minister of State for Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), who handled the CBI, recalled, "Yes, the CBI director used to consult me on some important cases. There were occasions when political bosses did not exert pressure to withdraw the case, but the pressure used to come from top CBI officials who were too eager on arresting the VIP offenders." He admitted that he had to accede to the CBI officials' demand as otherwise they would start spreading the word that certain people were not arrested because of interference by top leaders. Some of the top officers did not spare even the Prime Minister.
Singh feels that until the CBI is given Constitutional status, functional autonomy and unless its director is fully empowered to take decisions, the agency will not be able to justify the responsibility for which it was created.

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/inve...y-of-listening-to-its-political-masters-voice

 

[prasad1]

Because of the CBI's political overtones, it has been exposed by former officials such as Joginder Singh and B. R. Lall (director and joint director, respectively) as engaging in nepotism, wrongful prosecution and corruption. In Lall's book, Who Owns CBI, he details how investigations are manipulated and derailed. Corruption within the organisation has been revealed in information obtained under the RTI Act, and RTI activist Krishnanand Tripathi has alleged harassment from the CBI to save itself from exposure via RTI.

Normally, cases assigned to the CBI are sensitive and of national importance. It is standard practice for state police departments to register cases under its jurisdiction; if necessary, the central government may transfer a case to the CBI. The agency has been criticised for its mishandling of several scams. It has also been criticized for dragging its feet investigating prominent politicians, such as P. V. Narasimha Rao, Jayalalithaa, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav; this tactic leads to their acquittal or non-prosecution.
A 1991 arrest of militants in Kashmir led to a raid on hawala brokers, revealing evidence of large-scale payments to national politicians. The Jain hawala case encompassed former Union ministers Ajit Kumar Panja and P. Shiv Shankar, former Uttar Pradesh governor Motilal Vora, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha. The 20 defendants were discharged by Special Judge V. B. Gupta in the ₹650-million case, heard in New Delhi.
The judge ruled that there was no prima facie evidence against the accused which could be converted into legal evidence. Those freed included Bharatiya Janata Party president L. K. Advani; former Union ministers V. C. Shukla, Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, N. D. Tiwari and R. K. Dhawan, and former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana. In 1997 a ruling by late Chief Justice of India J. S. Verma listed about two dozen guidelines which, if followed, would have ensured the independence of the investigating agency. Sixteen years later, successive governments circumvent the guidelines and treat the CBI as another wing of the government. Although the prosecution was prompted by a public-interest petition, the cases concluded with no convictions. In Vineet Narayan & Othrs v Union of India AIR 1996 SC 3386, the Supreme Court ruled that the Central Vigilance Commission should have a supervisory role over the CBI.

The UPA government has been accused of allocating 2G spectrum to corporations at very low prices through corrupt and illegal means. The Supreme Court cited the CBI many times for its tardiness in the investigations; only after the court began monitoring its investigations were high-profile arrests made.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bureau_of_Investigation

 

[vgane]

How did the Maran brothers escape the noose..Read this

[h=1]CBI’s inaction against Chidambaram led to Maran’s discharge in Aircel-Maxis scam[/h] Was not moving against Chidambaram deliberate so the Maran brothers could escape?



February 3, 2017

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s sheer inaction against the former Finance Minister P Chidambaram for dubious approval of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to Malaysian company Maxis to take over Aircel, resulted in the discharge of former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and brother Sun TV Group head Kalanidhi Maran. For the past 30 months the CBI has not turned up in the 2G Court after promising in August 2014 to finish the probe on FIPB violations committed by Chidambaram.

Swamy’s version was that Maran only conspired with Chidambaram in illegally bringing Maxis to India.
​

Maran’s name cropped up in Aircel-Maxis scam in April 2011, when CBI received complaint from Aircel promoter Sivasankaran, alleging that he was arm twisted by the Telecom Minister in 2006 to sell his company to Maxis. CBI went ahead with the arm-twisting theory and stated in Supreme Court on July 7, 2011 leading to Maran’s exit from UPA Cabinet. CBI filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Maran in September 2011 along with brother, Maxis owners T Ananadakrishnan and Ralph Marshall and companies including the Sun TV Group. Still it is a mystery, as to why Sivasankaran approached CBI against Maran in 2011 on arm-twisting that happened five years ago.
Aircel-Maxis scam shook the Congress, when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy (then in Janata Party) in April 2012, exposed the role of Chidambaram in the scam and money trail to his son Karti linked firm of around Rs.26 lakhs. Then Swamy went to Supreme Court’s 2G cases monitoring Bench arguing that CBI’s Maran arm-twisting theory was not fully correct and that the actual crime started after P Chidambaram granted the bogus FIPB clearance. Swamy’s version was that Maran only conspired with Chidambaram in illegally bringing Maxis to India.
After Chidambaram was caught, the case went into deep freeze till the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) exited from power. CBI, in August 2014, after pressure from Supreme Court on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Prashant Bhushan, charge sheeted Maran and others in August 2014, detailing the illegalities of Chidambaram. CBI promised in charge sheet and in arguments of finishing soon on the probe on Chidambaram’s illegalities. Though Chidambaram was questioned by CBI in December 2014, CBI did not move an inch due to stalling by allegedly the then pliant CBI Director Anil Sinha and covert operations of the then Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das (Das has since been shunted out to be the Secretary of Economic Affairs).

But as FIPB Chairperson Chidambaram did not take it to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA).
​

In the Discharge Order on February 2, 2017, Special Judge of 2G Court OP Saini clearly says that CBI just jumped on Sivasankaran’s complaints and never provided evidence of arm-twisting. The main illegality was committed by Chidambaram in dubiously giving the FIPB clearance. How can Maran be fixed after the FIPB clearance? Without Chidambaram there is no case against Maran.
What were the illegalities of Chidambaram exposed by Subramanian Swamy and later ratified by the CBI and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)?

1. Aircel-Maxis deal is around Rs.3600 cr. ($535 million) But as FIPB Chairperson Chidambaram did not take it to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA). This is the only FDI he did not take to CCEA. Why? Because MHA clearance would have been needed as Saudi Telecom, which has telecom operations in Pakistan has shares in Maxis.
   
2. That time only 74% FDI was allowed. But using a circuitous route Maxis got 99.93% ownership, which they declared to the Malaysian Stock Exchange.
   
3. 74% of the stake was sold at more than Rs. 3600 crores ($535 million) but the remaining 25.93% was sold at just Rs.28 cr. ($4.2 million) It should have been sold at around Rs.1200 cr. ($178 million)
   
4. Later CAG found out that the actual money that came was Rs. 4900 cr. ($728 million) though approved by FIPB(illegally) was Rs.3600 cr.). The extra Rs.1300 cr. ($193 million) was a kickback.
   
5. ED now summoned Karti in Oct 2016. The five page summons order says to bring 2 lakh dollar his company Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd received from three Maxis companies after father approved this dubious deal.

The million dollar question is who in this BJP-led government protected Chidambaram and son Karti from CBI and ED charge sheeting? Not doing this of the main culprit Chidambaram led to the discharge of Maran brothers. When is CBI going to act on this grave miscarriage of justice?

https://www.pgurus.com/cbis-inactio...led-to-marans-discharge-in-aircel-maxis-scam/

 

[vgane]

Apt cartoon!