Under fire,DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran meets PM ahead of Cabinet reshuffle

Maran sought to dismiss the meeting as a routine one.

“It is nothing… I am a minister,” he underlined and contended that the meeting was related to official work.

Two of DMK’s leaders,A Raja and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi,are in Tihar Jail in connection with the 2G spectrum case.

Maran is in the eye of a controversy after former Aircel chief C Sivasankaran alleged that the he as Telecom Minister in 2006 “forced and arm-twisted” him to sell his stake in Aircel to Malaysian firm Maxis,whose owner is considered to be close to Maran and his brother Kalanidhi,who owns Sun TV Network.

Defending himself against allegations,the Union minister Dayanidhi Maran had said that he had records to prove his innocence which he would present to the authorities if needed.

Maran had claimed that the promoter of Aircel was interested in selling the company even before he became the telecom minister in the last cabinet in 2004.

To back his claim,he had circulated clippings of reports that appeared in 2004 and 2005 which said Aircel was sold to a foreign telecom company. The first set of reports in 2004 were about the sale of the firm to Hutchison for Rs 1,600 crore,while the report from 2005 said Russian firm AFK Sistema had entered into a $450 million deal to acquire 49 per cent in the company.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),which has begun preliminary probe into his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam,has termed the allegations as ‘serious’. The agency has said it would approach the DMK MP at the ‘right time’ to seek his clarification on various issues.