A couple of months ago, in a post titled THE ECONOMIC RAPE OF INDIA -- THE BROTHERS MARAN (reproduced below for easy reference), I had said that the wheels of justice were moving slowly by inexorably towards the Maran Brothers -- Kalanidhi and Dayanidhi for their role in the Great Telecom Robbery that shook the conscience of a somnolent Indian state and people.
Yesterday, I received a Press Release from the Directorate of Enforcement, Government of India, which is also reproduced below. If its contents are implemented with immediate effect, even as I write this post, the Maran Brothers would be poorer by Rs 742.58 Crore rupees. Not that it would make much of a difference to them. They have enough and more stashed away in the coffers of several countries. But the move by the Enforcement Directorate is still enough to demonstrate to the people of this nation that all is not lost in India; that the rule of law exists; that justice still prevails; and that we can still hold hope for a better, corruption-free tomorrow...
A tiny step, no doubt. But one that will leave a huge imprint on the public mind.
PRESS RELEASE
Directorate of Enforcement in Aircel – Maxis Scam Case has issued Order under (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) PMLA for the attachment of the assets held by Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Shri Kalanithi Maran and Smt Kaveri Kalanithi. This attachment is issued by the Directorate in respect of the offence of money laundering relating to the illegal gratification amounting to Rs 742.58 crores received by Shri Dayanidhi Maran. The offence of money laundering under Section 3 of PMLA is being investigated in respect of the offences punishable under section 120-B of IPC read with section 7, 12 and section 13(2) read with section 13(1)(d) of PC Act, which are scheduled offences under PMLA and is punishable under Section 4 of the Act.
In this case, CBI has filed charge sheet against the Maran brothers and their companies including the foreign companies and individuals in whch these persons are charges for the offences punishable under section 120-B of IPC read with section 7, 12 and section 13(2) read with section 13(1)(d) of PC Act. So the attachment of the illegal gratification by Shri Dayanidhi Maran has been done thereafter, as per provisions of PMLA.
The investigation under PMLA being carried out by the Headquarter Investigation Unit (HIU) in the Head Office of the Directorate has revealed that illegal gratification of Rs 742.58 crores was paid by the companies based in Mauritius for Shri Dayanidhi Maran, in the two companies namely M/s Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd (SDTPL) and M/s South Asia FM Ltd (SAFL). These two companies are owned and controlled by Shri Kalanithi Maran, brother of Shri Dayanidhi Maran. The money has been utilized by the companies in their business or investments.
The investigation under PMLA has further revealed that promoters of the SDTPL are Shri Kalanithi Maran and Smt Kaveri Kalanithi. These two persons are holding 80% shares of SDTPL. The shareholders of SAFL are M/s Sun TV Network Limited (60%) and 20% each are M/s A H Multisoft Pvt Ltd and M/s South Asia Multimedia Technologies Ltd, Mauritius. Shri Kalanithi Maran is holding 75% share of M/s Sun TV Network Limited. Shri Kalanithi Maran and Smt Kaveri Kalanithi are having 90% and 10% shareholding respectively in a company M/s Kal Comm Pvt Ltd.
The following Properties are attached under Section 5(1) of PMLA –
1. Fixed deposits held by Mr Dayanidhi Maran and others - Rs 7.47 Crores.
2. Fixed deposits held by SDTPL - Rs 31.34 Crores.
3. Fixed deposits held by SAFL - Rs 6.19 Crores
4. Mutual Funds held by SAFL - Rs15.14 Crores.
5. Fixed Deposit held by Mr Kalanithi Maran - Rs 100 Crores.
6. Mutual Funds held by Ms Kalanithi Maran - Rs 2.78 Crores.
7. Fixed Deposit held by Ms Kaveri Kalanithi - Rs 1.30 Crores.
8. Mutual Funds held by Ms Kaveri Kalanithi - Rs 1.78 Crores.
9. Land and Building owned by M/s Kal Comm Private Limited - Rs 171.55 Crores.
10. Free Hold Land and Building owned by M/s Sun Network TV Pvt. Ltd - Rs 266 Crores.
11. Shares of SDTPL held by Shri Kalanithi Maran – Rs 139 Crores.
THE ECONOMIC RAPE OF INDIA
THE BROTHERS MARAN
Dayanidhi Maran’s million-dollar smile is all set to be wiped out. The noose is slowly tightening round his neck. And in days or weeks, like his “aunt” Kanimozhi, he is likely to enjoy the hospitality of Tihar Jail in Delhi, courtesy the CBI. Whether his elder brother and Sun TV’s top honcho, Kalanidhi Maran will keep him company, we’ll have to wait and see. For the misdemeanour under inquiry has been jointly perpetrated by them. The fact that Dayanidhi was a Union Minister at that time, and had blatantly misused that position for business gains, makes things slightly more difficult for him to wriggle out.
The first stone against the younger of the Maran brothers was cast late last night (January 21st, 2015) when S Kannan, Chief Technical Officer in elder brother Kalanidhi’s Sun TV, K S Ravi, an electrician and V Gowthaman, the Additional Private Secretary to Dayanidhi during his Union Telecom Minister tenure, were picked up in Chennai. The CBI said the three had been arrested to collect crucial evidence which may come up during their custodial interrogation.
If the CBI is really keen to get at the truth (and there is no reason at this juncture to suspect otherwise), they are sure to employ a variety of tactics on the trio, which will make them sing. And if they sing, it’s going to be the hot seat for the brothers Maran.
The evidence hoped to be collected relates to the year 2006-2007, when Dayanidhi is reported to have used his position as Union Telecom Minister to set up a 323-lines mini telephone exchange in his house on the posh Boat Club Road in Central Chennai, to transfer data for and on behalf of his elder brother Kalanidhi’s satellite TV network. According to a secret report prepared by the CBI as early as in September, 2007, the quantum of data transmitted through this illicit link was so huge that it had caused a loss to the nation of a whopping Rs 440 crores.
Of the 323 ISDN lines, which are used for mass transfer of data, voice and video, 23 lines were provided with Basic Rate Access facilities, which would facilitate communicating one socket to three channels. This can be used for transmission of signalling information. According to the CBI report, 48,72,027 units of calls had emanated from one telephone number -- 24371515 -- in the month of March, 2007 alone.
Extrapolating this to 323 lines for a 4 month period when the lines were operative – we have an astounding consumption of 630 crore call units. At a rate of 0.70 rupee per call, this works out to a staggering Rs 440 crores.
Though this is peanuts when compared to the Rs 1,76,000 Crores loss caused by Dayanidhi’s successor in the Telecom Ministry, Andimuthu Raja, the audacity with which it was executed and the sheer arrogance of power that motivated it makes it the equivalent of an economic rape of the nation! Dayanidhi’s audacity at that time was such that he could threaten a Ratan Tata to part with a third of Tata DTH shares. He could also threaten the powerful head of the Tata empire not to reveal that he had threatened him! Further, he could strangulate street-fighter entrepreneur C Sivasankaran to sell Aircel, a telecom company promoted by him, to a Malaysia-based industrialist T Anandakrishnan, who in turn was coerced into gifting brother Kalanidhi with a Rs 800 crores DTH platform as an obvious quid-pro-quo!
With Dayanidhi’s grand uncle M Karunanidhi then presiding over Tamilnadu as Chief Minister and virtually dictating terms to a lame-duck UPA Government at the Centre headed by Manmohan Singh, Maran’s misdemeanours were kept under the wraps. Only when relations between the Congress and the DMK began to sour did the CBI muster the courage to commence a preliminary inquiry. A report was filed in 2011. Since then, with frequent prodding from the Supreme Court, the case has inched slowly forward.
The findings as of date indicate that Kalanidhi’s Sun TV had used the illegal telephone exchange to transmit news-related footages, video files and data to various countries and vice versa at the tax payers account. In the process, the TV network is reported to have saved as much as Rs 1300 crores.
But a closer look will indicate that this argument is flawed. The total turnover of the Sun TV group for 2006-07 was Rs 678 crores. When this was so, surely, Rs 1,300 crores cannot be a presumptive expenditure (or potential saving) under a single head namely, data transmission. Something is seriously amiss.
Sources within the BSNL confess that no information was available with them about the numbers assigned to the Dayanidhi Maran exchange. The details were neither with the computer cell nor with Public Grievances cell. The implication is that these 323 numbers had been kept out of the exchange system itself and hence was not known even to the telephone department.
But pray why?
Obviously, the idea was not only to deny the existence of the lines, when push came to shove, but to suppress its existence to everyone including the telephone department. These lines obviously could not have been used by Sun TV to send their programs and data. The mathematics simply does not add up. Surely such subterfuge gives clue to a different dimension altogether.
The arrest of three persons in connection with the illegal telephone exchange and transfer of data case is the first step. What has come out into the public domain is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. A lot more skeletons will tumble out. It will be interesting to see what the CBI manages to unearth.
Meanwhile, here are some credible speculations based on my own long years in the media:
I have been part of the media industry for over three decades. Of this almost two decades have been in the electronic media. A decade and a half of this has been as the head of the News wing of a prominent Tamil satellite TV network. And I know, for a fact, that there is very little possibility or necessity for transferring data to or from a TV channel to any destination in the world to the tune of Rs 440 crores over four months. Then what could be the nature of data said to have been transmitted by the Maran brothers?
Could the telephone exchange have been used for some other more sinister purposes than made out? Was something bigger and better getting transmitted through these telephone lines?
Could the Marans have been using this exchange for eavesdropping on some of India's most powerful and influential? After all, in today’s world, knowledge is power.
Is that why the CBI was reluctant to act despite being in the know for the past five years? Is that why the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh was hesitant to act on this matter?
Before anyone dismisses this as a figment of my imagination, let us not forget that in this day of advanced communication technology, eavesdropping is easy, especially if one has a telephone exchange at one’s own residence connected to 323 ISDN lines. Again who can ignore the allegation levelled by the Central Board of Direct Taxation that the offices of the then Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee were monitored through spying devices, which had been pasted in as many as 11 places in his room using adhesives and later been pulled out. The Intelligence Bureau which looked into this allegation at the behest of the Prime Minister, covered up with the unconvincing claim that what was found in the Finance Minister’s was not planted adhesives but chewing gum!
Surely my speculations are no more far-fetched than this.
Can someone come up with a better explanation?
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