The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday attached assets worth nearly Rs742 crore held by former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, brother Kalanithi and latter’s wife, Kaveri, in the Aircel-Maxis scam case relating to money laundering. “This attachment is issued by the Directorate (of Enforcement) in respect of the offence of money laundering relating to illegal gratification amounting to Rs742.58 crores received by Dayanidhi Maran,” the agency said in a statement. The Marans are accused of money laundering under the stringent Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA).
The ED has based its money laundering case against Marans following a CBI case against them and their companies in which they have already been chargesheeted for offences relating to criminal conspiracy of the IPC and certain provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. “So the attachment of the illegal gratification by Dayanidhi Maran has been done thereafter, as per provisions of PMlA,” read the statement. The investigation under PMlA is being carried out by the Headquarter Investigation Unit (HIU) in the Head Office of the ED.
The ED probe has revealed that illegal gratification of Rs. 742.58 crores was paid by companies based in Mauritius to Dayanidhi Maran, in the two companies Sun Direct TV Pvt. ltd. (SDTPl) and South Asia FM ltd. (SAFl). These two companies are owned and controlled by Kalanithi Maran, brother of Dayanidhi. The money has been utilized by the companies in their business or investments, the ED said.
The investigation under PMlA has further revealed that promoters of the SDTPl are Kalanithi and Kaveri. These two accused persons are holding 80 per cent shares of SDTPl. The shareholders of SAFl are Sun TV Network limited (60 per cent) and 20 per cent each are held by AH Multisoft Pvt. ltd. and South Asia Multimedia Technologies ltd., Mauritius.
Kalanithi Maran holds 75 per cent share of Sun TV Network ltd. Kalanithi and Kaveri hold 90 per cent and 10 per cent stake respectively in another company Kal Comm Pvt. ltd. The attached properties include freehold land and building owned by Sun Network TV Pvt. ltd. worth Rs 266 crores and shares of SDTPl held by Kalanithi to the tune of Rs 139 crores. Kalanithi also holds Fixed Deposits to the tune of Rs 100 crores.
Other assets attached include Fixed Deposits held by Dayanidhi and others (Rs 7.47 crore), Fixed Deposits held by SDTPl (Rs 31.34 crore), Fixed Deposits held by SAFl (Rs 6.19 crore) and Mutual Funds held by SAFl (Rs 15.14 crore). The agency also attached Mutual Funds held by Kalanithi (Rs 2.78 crore), Fixed Deposits held by Kaveri (Rs 1.30 crore) and Mutual Funds by Kaveri (Rs 1.78 crore).