SC threatens to take away Aircel’s spectrum over promoter refusal to appear in 2G case

The Supreme Court gave Malaysian billionaire businessman T Ananda Krishnan and his company Maxis Berhad two weeks to appear before the bench and explain their failure to answer criminal charges in a lower court or risk losing airwave licences belonging to local subsidiary Aircel.
Aircel’s licences could be transferred to a local company, auctioned off or its revenue attached. Krishnan and Maxis could technically avoid the order by appearing through lawyers and assuring the top court that they will face the charges in the lower court. Also covered by the order for evading summons are former Maxis employee Augustus Ralph Marshall and M/s South Asia Entertainment Holdings Ltd.

Apart from sending a clear signal to NRIs and other overseas investors that they should submit themselves to the Indian court system, experts said the Friday order could threaten the merger of Aircel with R ..

Should they appear, the four accused may well be eventually acquitted, but fear of court delays typically has overseas investors dreading the prospect of trials, experts said. Some lawyers said on condition of anonymity that bribery charges were mostly inferences based on coincidences which may not stand scrutiny in court. Friday’s order was aimed at making defendants aware of the consequences of not appearing, the apex court said.
The case relates to former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran allegedly coercing promoter C Sivasankaran to sell his stake in Aircel to Maxis in 2006 as part of a quid pro quo in the form of bribes. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a chargesheet on the matter in October 2014.