SPP withdraws plea relating to discharge of Marans in Aircel-Maxis case

The prosecutor in the Rs 742.58 crore Aircel-Maxis case on Wednesday withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea seeking stay on the release of attached properties of Maran brothers Dayanidhi and Kalanithi, who were discharged of all charges in the case by a special court.

Senior advocate Anand Grover, who was appointed as the Special Prosecutor by the apex court for prosecution of 2G spectrum scam cases and cases arising out of the probe in the scandal, withdrew the petition filed by him in which he had also sought execution of bail bonds of those discharged.

A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices N V Ramana and D Y Chandrachud allowed his plea. However, the bench expressed unhappiness when the SPP submitted that the court should clarify where the revision or appeal in the matter will go for hearing.

"Why should we tell you what you should do. You go where you want to go. We cannot tell you where to go. Should we tell every litigant that you go to that or this court. Is that the work which the Supreme Court should do from morning to evening," the bench said.

A day after the Marans were discharged in the case last week, the SPP, without waiting for the Enforcement Directorate, had moved the apex court in his individual capacity seeking certain orders relating to their discharge. He had informed the bench that proper appeal would be filed by the ED.

During the last hearing the bench had questioned the SPP for directly approaching the apex court against the Special Court order. On February 2, a special court here had discharged Maran brothers and two companies - M/s Sun Direct TV (P) Ltd (SDTPL) and M/s South Asia Entertainment Holdings Ltd- in the Aircel-Maxis deal cases lodged by CBI and ED, saying the charges were based on "misreading of official files", speculation and surmises of complainant C Sivasankaran.

ED had chargesheeted the Maran brothers, Kalanithi's wife Kavery, Managing Director of South Asia FM Ltd (SAFL) K Shanmugam, SAFL and Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd (SDTPL) under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).