Home Ministry may not give licence to Sun TV network cos

The Union Home Ministry may not grant licence to Kalanithi Maran-promoted Sun TV Network's group companies for alleged involvement of its owners in 2G spectrum scam and Aircel Maxis cases before various courts and investigating agencies.
The stand is likely to be communicated to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry as Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley had written a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the issue, official sources said here.
The company operates 45 radio channels under the brand name Suryan FM in Tamil Nadu and Red FM in rest of the country.
The Home Ministry said the company and its owners were allegedly involved in 2G scam, alleged bungling in Aircel-Maxis deal as well as running an "illegal" connections of telephones used for uploading their content, the sources said.

The company of Kalanithi, who is the brother of former union minister Dayanidhi Maran, had sought renewal of licence of its radio channels from one phase to another.
Under the switchover of phase, the company could operate more channels in the same bandwidth.