October 1, 2018:

Today Delhi High Court granted 7 Weeks to the CBI to obtain sanction to prosecute former Union minister P Chidambaram & other serving or former Public Servants in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.

Court pulled up the Agency for filing the Charge Sheet without proper sanction & told the CBI that if required the Court may take appropriate action in case the documents are not filed by November 26 which is the next day of hearing.

Special Judge O P Saini said,"You (CBI) should not have filed the charge sheet. It is only increasing the pendency of the court. A lot of time of the court has been wasted due to this."

On July 19,the Agency had filed a Charge Seet against the Congress leader, his son Karti, 10 individuals including Public Servants & 6 Companies as accused in the Case.

Judge allowed the CBI's request for grant of some time after Senior Advocate Sonia Mathur who represented the Agency, informed the Judge that sanctions are awaited.

The Court remarked,"If the sanction is not received, appropriate actions will be taken."

Mathur said,"Granting of sanction is under active consideration of the government."

Chidambaram's name is among the persons against whom sanction for prosecution from authorities concerned was awaited.

Court also adjourned a Money Laundering Case, which is an off-shoot of the Aircel-Maxis deal case, against Karti and others, after Mathur and Advocate N K Matta and Advocate Nitesh Rana requested an adjournment on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

On July 13, ED had filed a Charge Sheet against Karti and others for the alleged offence of Money Laundering.

However, Chidambaram was not arrayed as an accused in the case.

Mathur told the Court in the case filed by CBI, that the Agency was expecting sanctions for prosecution from authorities concerned in about 4 weeks.

The counsel told the Court that there were serving Public Servants and some retired ones against whom the sanctions would be needed before proceeding with their prosecution in the case.

CBI had filed the Charge Sheet for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Public Servant taking illegal gratification, punishment for abetting this offence and Public Servant committing Criminal Misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

If convicted, the offences entail a maximum punishment of 7 years.

Probe Agency has alleged that when Foreign Investment in Aircel by Malaysian telecom major Maxis was cleared by the Finance Ministry in March 13, 2006, a payment of Rs. 26 Lakh was made by Aircel to Chennai-based Advantage Strategic Consulting.

It is alleged that Advantage Strategic Consulting was indirectly controlled by Karti and had raised an invoice on March 29, 2006 against which Aircel made a payment on April 1, 2006.

The CBI has alleged that Chess Management Services Holding Ltd, a company in which Karti is promoter and director, also received Rs. 87 Lakh in several installments from an Associate Company of Maxis.

CBI had alleged in the charge sheet that while the payment of Rs. 26 lakh to Advantage Strategic Consulting was shown as fee for market research whereas Rs. 87 lakh to Chess Management was shown as fee for a software.

During investigation, the Agency had asked Chess Management Officials & Karti to produce the software which was allegedly provided to Maxis for a fee but they could not produce any such software, they said alleging that it was a bribe for the clearance of foreign investment proposal which was laced with several irregularities.

Agency has said this is a fresh Charge Sheet in the matter even as it stems from the FIR related to Aircel-Maxis deal registered in 2012 in which the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran & others have been charged and later discharged by a Trial Court. The CBI has filed an appeal against the Court Order.

Officials said this is a completely separate aspect of the case related to clearance of now defunct Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), under Finance Ministry, to the foreign investment clearance of Maxis in Aircel.

Among others listed in the charge sheet are the then secretary (economic affairs) Ashok Jha, the then additional secretary Ashok Chawla, the then joint secretary in finance ministry Kumar Sanjay Krishna, and the then director in the ministry Dipak Kumar Singh.

The agency has also named in the charge sheet former CEO of Aircel V Srinivasan, nephew of Chidambaram A Palaniappan who was also the promoter of Chess Management Services, Malaysian nationals Ananda Krishnan Tatparanandam, Augustus Ralph Marshall, both linked with Maxis, one S Bhaskaraman, and the then under secretary in the ministry Ram Sharan.

The six companies listed as accused are Chess Management Services Holding Ltd, Chennai-based Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd and Malaysian companies Astro All Asia Networks, Maxis Mobile, Bumi Armada Berhad and Bumi Armada Navigation.

The agency has charged all the accused with criminal conspiracy, bribery and abuse of official position.

It is alleged that FIPB approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March 2006 by Chidambaram even though he was empowered to accord approval on project proposals only up to Rs. 600 crore and beyond that it required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

Source: PTI

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