SC moved to stop Aircel-Maxis from selling spectrum

A plea was today filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre, CBI and ED to stop Aircel-Maxis from selling allotted spectrum to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, claiming it would allow Maxis to "escape law and abscond" with crores of rupees.
The NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, filed an application in the apex court wherein it has also sought directions to attach the properties and spectrum of Aircel.
Both CBI and Enforcement Directorate have already filed separate chargesheets in the Aircel-Maxis deal case and have named former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi and others as accused.

It has been alleged that Marans had coerced C Sivasankaran, then owner of Aircel, to sell his shares to T Ananda Krishnan, who was the promotor of Malaysian company, Maxis.
A special CBI court has reserved its order on framing of charges against all the accused.
The case against them had arisen during the probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam which was monitored by the apex court.

The NGO has also submitted that their main asset is
spectrum.
"Spectrum, which is a precious natural resource belonging to the people of India, has been allotted to Aircel/Maxis by the government. Today, the company is attempting to quickly sell off its allotted spectrum to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications for thousands of crores (of rupees), and exit the market with huge sums of money," the plea alleged.

"If the deal between Aircel and Bharti Airtel and the deal between Aircel and Reliance Communications is allowed to go through, then that would allow Maxis to escape the arm of law and abscond with thousands of crores of money," it claimed.
The petition also said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached assets worth Rs 742 crore of the Marans in the court-monitored investigation in the 2G spectrum scam and filed chargesheets.
"On April 2, 2015, ED issued an order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for attachment of assets held by Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi," the plea said.

"Direct the Respondents Union of India, CBI and ED to not allow M/s Maxis to sell stake/equity or spectrum allotted to M/s Aircel, and direct the respondents to attach the property and spectrum allotted to M/s Aircel," it said.