Prevention of Money laundering case against Marans by ED

The Enforcement Directorate may register a money laundering case against the Maran brothers and others in connection with the controversial Aircel-Maxis deal case in which CBI has alleged former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had received Rs547 crore as bribe.

CBI today carried out searches at the residences of Dayanidhi and nine other locations after registering a case against him, his brother Kalanithi Maran, SUN Direct TV Pvt Director, Chairman of Maxis Communication T Ananda Krishnan, senior executive of Astro All Asia Network and Maxis Ralph Marshall and three companies Astro All Asia Networks, Sun Direct TV and Maxis Communications.

ED sources privy to the development said the CBI FIR is under review and the agency may register its Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) equivalent to a police complaint under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provisions.

The ED had earlier issued notices to Telecom firm Aircel for alleged contraventions of foreign exchange rules in connection with 2G spectrum allocation case.

"CBI has registered case against the Maran brothers, Ralph Marshall and T Anandkrishnan and three companies under section 120b of IPC (criminal conspiracy) read with 13(2) with 13 (1)(d) and also section 7 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. A case was registered on October 9. Searches were conducted at Delhi and Chennai," CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said here.

It has been alleged by former Aircel Chief C Sivasankaran that Maran, as the then Telecom Minister, had favoured Maxis-group in the takeover of his company and in return investments were made by the company through Astro network in Sun TV owned by Maran family.