SC asks CBI, ED to file status report on Aircel-Maxis deal by 1 May
23 Apr 2014
The Supreme Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file status reports on the Aircel-Maxis deal related to the 2G scam in a week's time.
A bench of justices H L Dattu and K S Radhakrishnan has sought the reports by 1 May when it will also consider the plea for vacating a stay on trial proceedings against business leaders Sunil Mittal and Ravikant Ruia in the additional spectrum case.
"We understand that progress in the case (trial) has not been made and we would hear whether to continue with the interim order or not," a bench said.
The case was adjourned as Mittal's counsel Harish Salve was not available for arguments as he was making submissions in another case.
The CBI, which started preliminary inquiry into Aircel-Maxis deal on 4 January 2011, took nine months to register an FIR, ie, on 9 October 2011.
The investigating agency had told the Supreme Court in September last year that it has completed its probe against former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran in the case and had filed a status report in July 2011, stating that during 2004-07 when Maran was telecom minister, Sivasankaran was coerced to sell the stake in Aircel to Maxis Group.
The Supreme Court had stayed the trial proceedings against Mittal and Ruia through an interim order on 8 April last year after they approached the apex court challenging special court's order summoning them as accused despite CBI not naming them as accused in its charge sheet.
While summoning Mittal, Asim Ghosh, MD of Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd and Ravi Ruia, a director in Sterling Cellular Ltd, the special court had said that they were "prima facie" in "control of affairs" of their companies, named in the charge sheet by CBI in the case.
CBI had filed the charge sheet on 21 December 2012 against former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and three telecom firms -- Bharti Cellular Ltd, Hutchison Max Telecom Pvt Ltd (now Vodafone India Ltd) and Sterling Cellular Ltd (also Vodafone Mobile Service Ltd). They all were also summoned by the court on 11 April.
The CBI, in its charge sheet, had named the three telecom companies as accused in the case in which the Department of Telecommunications had allocated additional spectrum which had allegedly resulted in a loss of Rs846 crore to the exchequer.
