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Complainant in Aircel-Maxis case ironically named in IL&FS case
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SME Times News Bureau | 23 Aug, 2019
C. Sivasankaran who has been
nailed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in the IL&FS
loan fraud is ironically the original complainant in the Aircel-Maxis
in which former Finance Minister P Chidambaram is one of the accused
along with the other UPA Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
Sivasankaran
in his complaint with the CBI in 2011 had alleged that the then telecom
minister Dayanidhi Maran coerced him to sell his stake in Aircel which
he had founded.
He also alleged that Maran and his industrialist
brother Kalanithi received kickbacks in the form of Maxis group's
investments (through the Astro network) in Sun TV Network, which is
owned by the Maran family.
In case Sivasankaran provides more
evidence to establish his claim against Marans, it will also mount
trouble for Congress leader Chidambaram. The former Finance Minister was
named in the chargesheet filed by the CBI in the Aircel-Maxis case on
July 19 last year.
The CBI is probing how Chidambaram as Finance
Minister in 2006 granted the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB)
approval to a foreign firm, when only the Cabinet Committee on Economic
Affairs (CCEA) was empowered to do it.
As per the rules then,
the Finance Minister was allowed to approve foreign investment of only
up to Rs 600 crore with investments going beyond this required the
clearance of the CCEA. The allegation against Chidambaram is it the
approval was given by him deliberately to allow foreign investment of Rs
3,560 crore.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) has concluded that the
amount in the proposal was deliberately shown as Rs 180 crore instead
of the actual inflow of Rs 3,560 crore.
While the trial continues
in that case, the SFIO has found the Chennai-based entrepreneur
Sivasankaran to have defrauded IL&FS using his close connection with
top management of the now-infamous infrastructure financing major. The
corporate fraud investigating agency found Sivasankan to have given dud
shares of Tata Teleservices as collateral to keep raising more money
from IFIN, a group firm of IL&FS group.
As per the SFIO
probe, Sivasankaran was given loans without adequate collateral and when
they turned stressed asset, the top brass of the ILFS group connived
with him to cause a wrongful loss to the company. The investigation
revealed that Sivasankaran was a close friend of Ravi Parthasarathy and
Hari Shankaran - the chairman and vice chairman of IL&FS
respectively.
The ED in the money-laundering case involving
IL&FS has made Sivasankaran as one of the accused. During the probe,
it found that loans and refinancing advanced to SIVA Group companies
were extended in spite of being at financial stress and were fully in
connivance with members of Committee of Directors (CoD) namely Ravi
Parthsarathy, Hari Sankaran, Milind Patel and Ramesh C. Bawa.
"New
loans were sanctioned with a view to settle the earlier loan and new
loans were thus created remained outstanding. Since at the time of
refinancing no proper collateral security was taken and refinancing was
done on the basis of earlier collateral and even on the basis of
personal guarantee of the promoters of the said Groups," the ED
chargesheet noted.
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