KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 ― Telecommunications tycoon Tan Sri T. Ananda Krishnan and his former aide Ralph Marshall were charged by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) with corruption, according to a report.
The Times of India reported that Ananda, who is Maxis and Astro substantial shareholder, and Marshall, who was former deputy chairman at Astro were charged yesterday.
In September 2016, an Indian court had issued an arrest warrant for the the Malaysian billionaire in connection with an investigation into alleged phone-licence corruption.
They were charged alongside with P. Chidambaram, the former finance minister of India, Chidambaram’s son Karti, two serving Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, Sanjay Krishna and Deepak Kumar Singh.
Former economic affairs secretary Ashok Jha and the former Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) additional secretary, Ashok Chawla were also charged.
They were all charged in connection to the controversial Maxis- Aircel deal. The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment if convicted.
The charges revolve around the clearance Chidambaram gave to Maxis in 2006 during his tenure as finance minister to allowing Maxis to bring in 3,200 crore (RM1.8 billion) to the the country far exceeding FIPB’s limit of authority of 600 crore.
Among other things, The Times of India reported that Maxis sought to buy 18 crore shares of Indian telco Aircel at the rate of Rs 10, totalling Rs 180 crore.
CBI alleged that the real value of the deal stood at 3,200 crore.
However, FIPB only disclosed the face value of the shares at 1,800 crore so that it could give Maxis ,which had already owned 74 per cent of Aircel at that juncture a waiver from being referred to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
“When the file was in FIPB, every aspect of Maxis’s investment, including the face value amount and the premium amount was discussed by senior official several time. Chidambaram himself was involved and gave oral instructions on a few occasions. Everyone knew it was an illegal proposal, yet it was approved at the finance minister’s level,” said Times of India quoting CBI.
The agency claimed that while Maxis obtained FIPB’s approval on March 13, 2006, two weeks later on March 29, Advance Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd a firm indirectly connected to Karti issued an invoice of Rs 29 lakh (RM 181,000) to Aircel for services related to “market survey”. Aircel made the payment of April 1, 2006.
CBI also claimed that weeks later another company allegedly run by Karti, Chess Management Pvt Ltd received Rs 87 lakh from subsidiary companies of Maxis for allegedly providing “software services.”
These payments according to the CBI were kickbacks for the approval given by the finance ministry to Maxis.
Chidambaram is the second former minister to be implicated in this deal. Earlier, telecom minister, Dayanidhi Maran was charged by CBI for allegedly forcing the Indian promoter to sell Aircel to Maxis.
