It's official: CBI probing Maran in 2G case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the role of Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran in the alleged 2G spectrum allocation scam, a government lawyer told the Supreme Court on Wednesday, a fresh embarrassment for a government already mired in a series of scandals.

The probe is to investigate if Maran, a member of leading government ally DMK party and a former telecom minister, coerced the founder of mobile phone firm Aircel to sell off his stake, the lawyer said.

Maran has in the past denied allegations he threatened or forced C Sivasankaran, the founder, to sell off the stake to a firm considered close to the minister.

"Dayanidhi Maran is under the scanner, probe is going on," KK Venugopal, lawyer for the CBI, told the Supreme Court. "There was an element of coercion."

The move may further strain relations between the ruling Congress party and DMK, whose 18 MPs give the coalition government a narrow majority in parliament. But with the DMK out of power in Tamil Nadu, few expect it to pull out of the government.

The case has already claimed another former telecoms minister, a DMK MP and several business executives, who are all in jail pending trial and who have denied any wrongdoing.

A raft of corruption scandals in Singh's second term has paralysed policymaking in Asia's third-largest economy and diverted attention away from nurturing sluggish growth and pushing forward much-needed economic reforms.

The telecom scandal is over rule breaking and graft over a decade in the grant of lucrative telecom licences in the world's fastest growing telecom market.

Maran's party colleague A Raja was telecom minister during that period and Raja has been in jail for months.

Maran was telecom minister between 2004 and 2007. He returned to the cabinet in 2009.