SC dismisses Swamy's petition against PC, son

New Delhi, Wed Sep 11 2013 : The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed Subramanian Swamy's petition

seeking contempt proceedings against Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karthi Chidambaram for allegedly threatening him with a defamation suit in Singapore to prevent him from pursuing the 2G case in India.

A Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan held that Swamy failed to make out a case for contempt under the law.

It noted Swamy failed to establish a link between Singaporean Venture Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd, allegedly controlled by Karthi, which filed the defamation suit against him in Singapore for publishing some material on internet, and his pursuing Aircel-Maxis deal in the Supreme Court.

Swamy's petition claimed that Advantage Strategic Consulting Singapore Pvt Ltd, a company substantially owned and controlled by Karthi, arranged to file a defamation suit against him in a Singapore court. He alleged that by filing the suit, they sought to obstruct administration of justice.

Source : IE

Dr. Swamy effect : Maxis CEO stares at arrest, Interpol Red Corner Notice

May 21, 2012


New Delhi : In a new twist to the controversial Aircel-Maxis deal, the Indonesian Police has issued arrest warrant against Ralph Marshall, the CEO of Maxis Group and Astro All Asia Network. Ralph Marshall’s name  figured as accused in the CBI’s FIR along with former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

Indonesian newspapers, quoting top National Police official Brig M Taufik, recently reported  that Marshall’s name figures in the Wanted List for cheating, forgery, fraud and money laundering.

Marshall, a Sri Lankan of Tamil origin,  holds Canadian citizenship and  is residing in Malaysia. He  is considered  No 2 in the vast business empire floated by the  Malaysian tycoon T Ananda Krishnan, popularly known as TAK. Both figured as No 3 and No  4 in the CBI’s FIR along with  Maran brothers in the Aircel-Maxis deal.

According to CBI, for facilitating the acquisition of Aircel by Maxis, Maran brothers received quid-pro-quo through Maxis subsidiary Astro. This company later invested around `600 crore in Maran brothers controlled Sun Networks, CBI’s FIR says.

“Headquarters of the Indonesian National Police (Police Headquarters) confirmed that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Astro Malaysia, Ralph Marshall, entered the Wanted Persons List (DPO ) related to cases of alleged criminal forgery. Determination of DPO was issued since 18 April 2012 through a letter numbered DPO/05/IV/2012/DIT General Crime (Pidum) signed Ari Dono Sukmanto Brig,” reported Indonesian newspapers Republica and Antara News, quoting Chief of Bureau of Public Information Headquarters, Brig M Taufik.

In Indonesia, Wanted Persons List is known as DPO (Daftar Pencarian Orang) and it is issued on fugitives after police fails to arrest them.

The Indonesian Police officials also said hey have already sent arrest warrant against Marshall through diplomatic channels to Malaysia. The top cops also added they would soon approach Interpol to issue Red Corner Notice against “fugitive Marshall” to force the member countries to arrest him.

The same was confirmed in Malaysian newspapers like The Edge, Business Times and The Malaysian Insider. “Indonesian Police are looking to arrest Ralph Marshall, the right hand man of Malaysian multi-billionaire T Ananda Krishnan, over fraud and money laundering charges,” reported The Malaysian Insider, adding a report on the forthcoming  revamp of Maxis Group following  criminal charges faced by Marshall.

Astro All Asia Networks is the subsidiary of Maxis and have shareholding in several media organisations across the continent including  India. Astro has entered into an alliance with Indonesian media company Lippo Group and also has sizeable shares in it.

The problem started when Astro sold its shares to Saudi Global telecom, without consulting the Indonesian partner Lippo. The Indonesian police have charged Marshall with  money laundering, fraud and  forgery cases and sued him for a compensation to the tune of $300 mn.

“Their (Indonesian government) calculation is that if they can exploit the criminal law to cause confusion and fear, they can avoid paying the damages,” Astro’s lawyer Hafzan Taher said in the statement, reported by the Malaysian newspaper Edge.

CBI, which registered FIR, eight months ago has not been able to question foreign nationals Ananda Krishnan and Marshall. Last week, a CBI team visited  Malaysia and sources say Attorney General of Malaysia promised “all help” in relation to Aircel-Maxis deal.

However, the probe on Maxis violating the Indian foreign investment rules has reached no where. According to norms, maximum permissible level of foreign investment in telecom sector is 74 per cent. Contrary to the FIPB records, Maxis’ declaration to Malaysian stock exchange reveals that they have acquired almost 100 percent shares in Aircel in  violation to  Indian laws.

Source : Daily Pioneer

2G scam: Give evidence to probe Chidambaram, SC to Swamy

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today directed Janata Party chief Subramanium Swamy to submit all his correspondence with the CBI in connection with his plea to investigate former Finance Minister P Chidambaram for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.The court said it would first go through those documents and then, if necessary, seek response from the CBI and the government.

“Place on record your all correspondence with CBI,” a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said while asking Swamy to file an affidavit within a week along with all relevant documents and his communication with the CBI Director for proceeding against Chidambaram.

upreme Court of India. Reuters

The government, however, vehemently opposed Swamy’s plea and said that if he has any evidence then he should place before the CBI which is investigating the case.

“Instead of coming directly to the Supreme Court, he should go to CBI,” senior advocate P P Rao, appearing for the Centre said adding “whatever evidence is there, it should be placed before the agency.

“CBI has already looked into the matter and found nothing. My handicap is that I am not CBI. Unless I get CBI report I cannot say anything. It is for the CBI to tell you,” Rao contended while asking the bench not to entertain such petitions.

The bench, however, expressed reservations over his plea saying,  “Do we have any rule that when an application is filed and allegations are made it cannot be placed before us.”

Swamy, in his arguments pleaded that the pricing of 2G spectrum was fixed by the then Telecom Minister A Raja and the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram and their role should be probed by the agency. Swamy claimed, “There is overwhelming evidence of his (Chidambaram) involvement in the pricing of spectrum. Raja is behind the bar on the issue. So there should be proper investigation against Chidambaram also.” He said “he had written to the CBI and filed a complaint but it appears that CBI is quite shy on questioning Chidambaram”.

Swamy said under the 2003 decision of the Empowered Group of Ministers, approved by the Cabinet, the pricing formula for spectrum was required to be finalised jointly by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Finance.

“A pricing formula for spectrum, would not be valid and binding until it had the concurrence of both the DoT and MoF,” he said adding that Chidambaram was the Finance Minister when the spectrum allocation was made. “Hence, to fully investigate and fix culpability  for the charge of cheating the government exchequer by non-revision of entry fee”, it is necessary to interrogate Chidambaram and then evaluate his responses, he said. 

Swamy’s plea was supported by advocate Prashant Bhushan, who was appearing for an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation.

“I fully support and agree this is a matter which needs to be investigated,” Bhushan said.

Bhushan also questioned CBI for not charge-sheeting the Tatas who he claimed were one of the biggest beneficiaries of out-of-turn allotment of the spectrum and potrayed them as a victim just because they didn’t get spectrum in Delhi circle.

The CPIL alleged CBI has also not chargesheeted Attorney General G E Vahanvati, who as the then Solicitor General, gave opinion to former Telecom Minister A Raja on the issue of licences for the 2G spectrum.

Vahanvati, who has been made a witness in the case, has denied all allegations against him.

Bhushan also said there have been several shortcomings in  the CBI probe in the case as the agency has not mentioned at all in its charge sheets about TRAI Act violations as DoT, without following mandatory Section 11 procedure, unilaterally deviated from TRAI recommendations on issue of new licenses.

Source : PTI

2G Spectrum Case : Swamy to make Chidambaram co-accused

NEW DELHI : 

The Janata Party President, Dr Subramanian Swamy, told a Special Court on Friday that he will file an application before it to make Mr P. Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G spectrum case.The application will be filed on September 2 or 3, Dr Swamy said.

Mr Chidambaram, the Home Minister, was the Finance Minister during the 2G spectrum allocation when Mr A. Raja — an accused in the 2G case — was the Telecom Minister.

The Special Court has permitted Dr Swamy to conduct his case himself. He will also be able to access the CBI records in the case.

Dr Swamy said he will inform the Supreme Court on September 1 about the application that he will be filing against Mr Chidambaram before the special court. He told Business Line after the proceedings that he will argue before the apex court for directions to the CBI to investigate the culpability of Mr Chidambaram in the 2G case. Dr Swamy said he has evidence that Mr Chidambaram had several meetings with Mr Raja for deciding to grant the 2G spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices which were allegedly undervalued.

If Mr Raja is charge-sheeted by the CBI for it, Mr Chidambaram can also be charge-sheeted and made co-accused, he said. Besides, Mr Chidambaram's signature is there on some documents on 2G spectrum allocation, he added.

The CBI told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it will file its supplementary charge sheet in the 2G spectrum allocation case by mid-September. The apex court was also informed that the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department will file before it their respective status reports regarding the investigation into the 2G scam on September 1.

Source : Business Line