The Enforcement Directorate on Monday informed the 2G Special Court that the probe is underway in the trail of "ill-gotten money" in Aircel-Maxis scam spreading to four countries namely Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore and the UK. Arguing before the 2G Court Judge OP Saini, ED's prosecutor Naveen Matta said the money trail from Maxis subsidiary Astro Network to NDTV was also subject matter of investigation and the letter of Rogatory (lR) to london was issued in this aspect.
The ED's counsel was arguing on the chargesheet filed against former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and five others in the Aircel Maxis money trail case of Rs 750 crore. The agency said four lRs have been issued in relation to further probe including the one sent to Singapore in connection with the probe in the money trail linked to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti's company Advantage Strategic Pvt limited.
According to ED, during the scam period in 2006 and 2007, Astro All Asia Network ltd, the subsidiary of Malaysian company Maxis based in the UK, also had transactions with NDTV.
The CBI and the ED charged the Maran family for routing kickbacks to Sun TV Group through the Astro All Asia Network ltd. "We have found the money trail in this ill gotten money to other areas also. We have detailed it in the chargesheet and the chart of this illegal money flow is also attached," said Matta.
After 20 minutes' argument, the Judge posted the case for further hearing and study of documents submitted by ED to February 1. Arguing on the money trail to Maran family and their companies, the ED counsel produced a series of bank transactions of kickbacks received during the period 2007. Most of the money trail to Sun TV was through Standard Chartered Bank and City Union Bank.
The ED's chargesheet also detailed the money trail and fund flow to the Karti-controlled company Advantage Strategic Consulting and its investments in Vasan Eye Care. The chargesheet also mentioned the FIPB violations committed by former Finance Minister Chidamabaram in approving the Aircel-Maxis deal. It further mentioned that during the period in early 2006, when files were pending with Chidambaram, the company Advantage linked to his son Karti had a financial transaction of Rs 26,00,444 with Sivasankaran's Aircel Televenture, which received around Rs 4,900 crore from Maxis.