The Supreme Court on Wednesday fixed July 2013 deadline for the CBI to complete its probe into the irregularities in the Aircel-Maxis deal involving the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
The CBI's investigation into the case got held up on account of non-cooperation by Malaysian Government and Mauritius on the letters rogatory seeking details about Malaysian-based company Maxis, owned and operated by business tycoon T Ananda Krishnan. Maran, who was the Telecom Minister between February 2004 and May 2007 was accused of arm-twisting Aircel to sell majority stake to Maxis. As a quid pro quo, CBI trailed investment by Maxis into Sun Network, owned by Marans.
In its latest status report submitted to Court, CBI counsel senior advocate KK Venugopal showed "little progress" made by the agency following its meeting with the Malaysian Attorney General on March 21 this year. However, the Malaysian Government has adopted a procedure requiring sanction from the country's law Minister to supply any information in response to CBI's letter rogatory.
The CBI status report came in response to an application filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy who added another dimension to the deal accusing the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram of wrongly approving FIPB clearance for the said deal. As per the norms, only 74 per cent of foreign investment was permissible in telecom sector but the Malaysian company Maxis' declaration to their home stock exchange exposed that they have acquired more than 99 per cent in Aircel.
The bench of Justices GS Singhvi and KS Radhakrishnan told the CBI that the probe cannot be "indefinite" and clarified that in the event the foreign state did not cooperate, the CBI may consider filing its investigation report by July. The Court fixed the matter for further monitoring in the second week of July.