KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 ― India’s Supreme Court published an order in newspapers here summoning billionaire Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan to appear in a corruption case related to the Aircel-Maxis deal.
The court order published in local daily theSun yesterday also revealed that the publication of the summons on Ananda and three others ― Malaysian corporate figure Augustus Ralph Marshall, Astro All Asia Networks and Maxis Communications Berhad ― was made after Malaysia’s Attorney-General’s Chambers allegedly refused to serve the summons as it did not fulfil provisions under the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2002.
“In order to enforce the presence of accused Nos.iii ― Mr Augustus Ralph Marshall, iv ― Mr Ananda Krishna Tatparanandam, vi ― M/s. Astro All Asia Networks Limited and vii ― M/s. Maxis Communications Berhad, Malaysia, we propose to restrain, earning of any revenue, by using the 2G Spectrum licenses, which were originally granted to M/s.Aircel Telecommunications,” said the court order.
“The restraint of use of 2G Spectrum (licenses whereof were originally granted to M/s Aircel Telecommunications, in November 2006), would obviously entail adverse consequences, to the spectrum subscribers.
“We do not wish our order to have any such impact. It is therefore, that we direct the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology to devise ways and means, whereby, the earlier subscribers (of the 2G Spectrum licenses, granted in favour of M/s. Aircel Telecommunications) can be transferred provisionally, to some other service provider, in case the necessity to pass the proposed order arises,” it added.
International newswire Bloomberg reported last September that an Indian court had issued an arrest warrant for Ananda and Augustus in the alleged phone-licence graft case.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation reportedly sought the warrants as part of its probe into claims that former Indian telecommunications minister Dayaidhi Maran had improperly favoured an operator for a phone license.
According to Bloomberg, the Indian bureau told the country’s supreme court in 2011 that it was probing if Maran had delayed granting a licence to Aircel Cellular Ltd and forced its founder, Chinnakannan Sivasankaran, to sell his controlling stake to Maxis.
