The CBI today told the Supreme Court that chargesheet in the controversial Aircel-Maxis deal involving former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran will be filed shortly as the Attorney General disagreed with the views of its Director Ranjit Sinha to drop the prosecution.
A Bench headed by Justice HL Dattu which perused the status report and other materials filed in sealed cover on the progress of the probe, said “after the opinion of Attorney General (Mukul Rohatgi), CBI has talked about the filing of the chargesheet at the end of the particular month”.
The Bench made the remarks after senior advocate KK Venugopal, who placed the status report on behalf of the CBI, said that the apprehension was not justified that the agency was not moving forward for filing the chargesheet.
He explained the sequence of events for delay due to difference of opinion between CBI Director and Director Prosecution on filing of charge sheet which was finally decided after Attorney General’s opinion.
“The Attorney General has concurred with the opinion of Director of Prosecution and not with the CBI Director,” Venugopal said, adding that “all steps have been taken for filing of the chargesheet and that is going to be done”.
He said that Rohatgi’s July 27 opinion was received by the CBI on August 4.
The CBI had earlier said that its domestic investigation was complete but was facing hurdles in its overseas probe as it was not getting cooperation from the Malaysian authorities.
The Aircel-Maxis deal also involved Kuala Lumpur-based businessman T Ananda Krishnan.
Maran has been accused of “forcing” Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell the stake in Aircel to Malaysian firm Maxis Group in 2006 owned by Ananda Krishnan.