NEW DELHI: A special 2G court on Saturday dismissed a plea made by former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran, challenging its jurisdiction to try the Aircel-Maxis deal case, in which they were summoned as the accused.
Pronouncing the order, Special Judge O P Saini said, “There is no manner of doubt that by the standard of subject matter and periodicity of alleged crime, the case fairly/squarely falls within the description/designation of the 2G scam. There is no doubt that all these applications are devoid of even an iota of merit and are accordingly dismissed.”
During the hearing, the Marans submitted that the Aircel-Maxis dispute was a private matter and not part of the alleged 2G scam. Therefore, the court designated to deal exclusively with the 2G spectrum scam should not hear the matter.
However, the court refuted the claim. “In view of the fact that the subject matter of the case was fairly and squarely covered by the CAG report, as extracted above, whose report was duly considered by the Supreme Court in its order dated December 16, 2010, while issuing the directions, the submission is of no avail,” the court said.
The court noted that instant case is based on failure of an ongoing commercial transaction between two private individuals.
“However, the submission has been noted to be rejected as the undue delay in granting of licences during the period 2004-2006 has also been adversely commented upon by the CAG and a direction has also been issued by the Supreme Court to investigate this part of the licencing regime also,” the order reads.
The Maran brothers had challenged the jurisdiction of the special 2G court in both the cases lodged by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation. Dayanidhi, his wife, Kalanithi and others had moved their bail pleas in the money laundering case. The next date of hearing was set for September 21.
Case diary
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that the South Asia FM Limited and Sun Direct TV Private Ltd, which were then controlled by Kalanithi, had received D742.58 crore as “proceeds of crime” from Mauritius-based firms.