Maran forced me to sell my stake: Former Aircel owner

Some more skeletons are falling out of the closet now in the 2G case, one of the biggest scandal that has rocked the country and has carried politics and corporates in its tide. In a statement to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Aircel's former owner S Sivasankaran had said that Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran had forced him to sell his stake, reports CNBC-TV18's Malvika Jain quoting sources.

Maran from DMK, is facing allegations of bending rules for granting 14 licences to Dishnet Wireless (now Aircel) during his tenure as telecom minister between 2004 and 2007. As reported earlier, Telecom Ministry said that report of the one man committee Shivraj Patil, which also went into the procedures followed by the DoT from 2001 onwards in grant of licence and spectrum allocation, was handed over to the CBI in February. Aircel applied for licences before the UPA 1 came to power and DoT officials had raised some objections against the application. Patil report, on the other hand, had pointed out unnecessary delay in grant of licences to Aircel. According to allegations, Maran family-owned Sun TV Network was a beneficiary of pay-offs by an overseas telecom firm and the CBI has started a "preliminary investigation" against Maran. As per the lawsuit, after Aircel was taken over Maxis, Sun TV received substantial investment from Maxis Group, which took 20 per cent equity in Sun Direct. Meanwhile, Maran has said he did not favour any company in granting UASL licence when he was telecom minister, even as political parties BJP and AIADMK have called for his resignation on this issue. Also watch the accompanying video.