Mumbai-based newspaper The Indian Express said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has stepped up investigations into troubled Indian mobile operator Aircel, the fifth-largest in the Asian sub-continent.
The ED was set up under the country’s laws on money laundering and foreign currency exchange management to combat foreign currency leakages through malpractice.
“The ED officials will also send a letter rogatory to Malaysia seeking legal assistance to question Krishnan (picture) and Marshall,” the paper said.
In legal terms, a letter rogatory is a formal letter of request from a court to a foreign court for some form of judicial assistance, usually to help with the process of recording evidence.
Indian investigators have named Ananda, Marshall and two Malaysian companies, Maxis Communications Bhd (Maxis Communications) and Astro All-Asia Networks (Astro), in their case against former Indian telecommunications minister Dayadhini Maran and his media mogul brother, Kalainidhi.
The two are being investigated for forcing Aircel founder, C. Sivasankaran, to sell his stake in the Indian telecommunications company to Maxis Communications.
The controversy centres on Maxis’ 74 per cent stake in Aircel, which was said to have been bought for Rs78.81 billion (about RM506,556,185).
The paper also reported ED officials have seized “financial documents” from the Marans’ homes during raids in Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Apart from the case filed against the Maran brothers, Ananda, Marshall and the Malaysian companies, India’s Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has named the Maran brothers’ Sun TV Network.
All three companies are at the centre of an ongoing criminal investigation since they were used to route the alleged ‘pay-off’ money that Dayanidhi earned for providing favours to Ananda’s companies.
Citing sources in the ED, the paper said the “financial documents” of Sun TV, Maxis Communications, Aircel and Astro would also be scrutinised to establish the trail of Rs630 million which was allegedly paid as kickback to Sun TV.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also cleared as suspect Indian heiress Suneeta Reddy of the Apollo Hospitals Group, who holds a 26 per cent share in Aircel, another Indian daily reported today.
Citing CBI sources, The Economic Times said Reddy was not aware of the conspiracy behind the buyout when she picked up the minority stake.
The paper also said CBI investigators are optimistic Reddy will agree to testify as a witness against the Marans, Ananda and Marshall who have been named as the accused.
Maran has openly described Ananda as a family friend, the Times of India said.
Ananda owns a 74 per cent stake in Aircel through Maxis Communications which also has a 70 per cent stake in Malaysia’s telecommunications giant, Maxis Bhd.
The 73-year-old telecommunications, media and property tycoon is reported to be worth US$9.6 billion and is ranked by Forbes as Southeast Asia’s second-richest man and the world’s 89th.
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