The prosecutor in the Rs 742.58 crore Aircel-Maxis case today 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.
In the money laundering case, 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).
On February 3, senior advocate Anand Grover, Special Public Prosecutor in 2G spectrum related cases, had moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the order of releasing the attached properties and execution of bail bond of Maran brothers after their discharge in the case.
His plea had led to asking of some probing questions by the apex court, which did not agree with the grounds taken by him and said the discharge of the accused made it clear that this case was not of money laundering as alleged by ED.
"The simple logic is that this money (Rs 742.58 crore), considered to be that of laundering, is not found to be that of the proceeds of the crime," the bench had said.
Before the matter was posted for today, Grover had tried to explain that why he himself had moved the SC without waiting for ED to file an appeal against the order of the special court which held that no case of conspiracy was made out against any of the accused persons in the case.
He had said that ED will file a proper appeal after consultation and approval but due to urgency in the matter, he had moved the apex court with only two prayers that the bail bonds should not be executed and the attached properties should not be released.
On being asked by the bench as to why Grover didn't approach the Delhi HC with a revision petition as the issue of bail bonds is a too trivial, he had said that as per earlier orders of the apex court, only after the final order in the 2G cases could parties approach the high court and all interim orders pending completion of trial would be dealt with by SC.
However, the apex court disputed his contention and said the discharge order is the final order.
The bench had asked the SPP to prepare a fresh petition so that there should not be any objections.
DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran, during his tenure as Telecom Minister from February 2004 to May, 2007, had allegedly abused his official position and showed undue favours to Ananda Krishnan-owned company in lieu of which the business tycoon bought equity subscription shares of Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd and accused firm South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd which were managed by Kalanithi Maran, the prosecution had said.
