Besides Maran brothers, Kalanithi’s wife Kavery Kalanithi and K Shanmugam, managing director of South Asia FM Ltd (SAFL), also moved their bail application before Special CBI Judge OP Saini, after which the court issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and posted the matter for July 21.
The court had on February 27 summoned all four accused persons and two firms – SAFL and Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd (SDTPL) as accused in the case. The summons were issued by the court, while taking cognisance of the ED’s charge-sheet against the six accused under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The court had said that there was “enough incriminating material” to proceed against the accused. It also asked the ED to continue the investigation and file fresh complaints, if required.
The ED has chargesheeted the six accused under provisions of the PMLA. During arguments earlier, the ED’s special prosecutor NK Matta had claimed that there were money transactions that allegedly showed that SDTPL and SAFL had received Rs 742.58 crore as “proceeds of crime” from Mauritius-based firms in the Aircel-Maxis deal.
The agency had claimed that “proceeds of crime”, amounting to Rs 549.03 crore and Rs 193.55 crore were received by SDTPL and SAFL, allegedly controlled by co-accused Kalanithi Maran, respectively, through various Mauritius-based entities.