Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran resigns from Union Cabinet on alleged role in 2G scam

NEW DELHI: Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran has submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, informed sources said Thursday, a day after the CBI alleged that he forced telecom promoter C. Sivasankaran to sell his Aircel stake to the Maxis group considered close to his family.

Maran, the second DMK leader to lose a cabinet post over the 2G telecom scam, is learnt to have submitted his resignation to the prime minister after attending what turned out to be his last cabinet meeting as a union minister, the sources said.

Maran left the prime minister's 7 Race Course Road residence after attending the meeting and drove back after putting in his papers, the sources said. He is believed to have had a short meeting with the prime minister.

Reading out from CBI's status report before a bench of Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly, CBI counsel KK Venugopal said Maran as telecom minister blocked grant of spectrum licences to Aircel from 2004-06.

“Inquiry has revealed that in spite of unanimous recommendation for approval of letter of intent, the then Minister for Communications and Information Technology raised objections and sought clarification on August 26, 2004, primarily to block issuance of licences,” he said. During Maran's tenure as telecom minister, letters of intent were issued on April 6, 2004, to Aircel, in which C Sivasankaran had 74% stake.

Sivasankaran had alleged that the minister had pressured him to sell off his stake in Aircel to Ananda Krishnan, a close friend of the Marans. CBI said documentary evidence collected so far gave credence to the allegations raised by Sivasankaran. “The enquiries (raised by the minister) appeared to be frivolous and based on out of context grounds meant obviously to block transfer of licenses. After the file (relating to Sivasankaran) was sent to the minister, it was received with objections after 44 days with the file marked to Secretary, Telecom.

Maxis Communication, through its subsidiary Astro, allegedly invested around Rs 600 crore in Sun DTH belonging to the Sun TV Network owned by Maran's family.

Maran, has denied charges that he forced the founder of the Aircel telecom group, C. Sivasankaran, to sell his stake in the group to another company which was close to the Maran family.

Maran's successor as IT and communications minister A. Raja quit in November 2010 and was jailed for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities in allotting second generation radio wave licences to mobile phone service providers.

Another DMK leader, Karunanidhi's daughter and MP Kanimozhi, is also in prison for allegedly conspiring with Raja.