As details from the Patil Committee’s report began to trickle down here from New Delhi on Monday, the latest angst has been over the Rs 675-crore infusion by the Malaysia-based Astro Group into Sun Network’s DTH venture Sun Direct in 2007, which raises more questions about the scam’s ambit even before A Raja took over as telecom minister. Astro is the sister concern of Aircel (formerly Dishnet Wireless).
The investment was routed through complex cross-holdings. Sun Direct, launched in December 2007, after the fall-out of Maran brothers with the DMK first family necessitated Dayanidhi Maran’s replacement with A Raja as telecom minister, is a 80:20 joint venture “between the Maran family and the Astro Group of Malaysia,” sources here confirm.
Sun TV declined comment to the latest report that the Malaysian investment into its DTH arm came four months after Dishnet Wireless got 2G spectrum when Dayanidhi Maran was the telecom minister. The company’s top boss Kalanidhi Maran was also not available for comment.
The latest row seems to have had no impact on Sun TV’s shares in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday where it closed a shade higher at Rs 422.05.
Contrary to a prompt denial the company’s promoters had given to the BSE last week, when another of its group concern, Spicejet’s shares price had begun to fall on market fears that the CBI might be questioning its promoters in connection with the 2G spectrum scam, no such clarification went out to the BSE on Monday on the latest controversy over its DTH arm.
Instead, Sun TV Network, a few days ago has tersely informed the BSE that the company and its chairman Kalanidhi Maran, “categorically deny any shareholding or association/transaction with Kalaignar TV.”
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It followed this up with another communication to the BSE, saying that its advertisement rates for all its channels will go up from April 1, 2011.Kalaignar TV, too, has been under a cloud for the alleged transfer of an unsecured loan of Rs 210 crore from the Balwas-owned DB Realty, now being probed by the CBI in the 2G case.
Close on its heels, DMK President and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday night denied that Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata had written to him, commending A Raja’s telecom policy as being “legally sound and rational”.
The letter row is significant in the backdrop of a major issue that erupted in the run-up to the 2006 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, and the Tatas reportedly seeking a “level-playing field” in the new telecom policy.
Pressure on Tata
A Chennai-based newspaper had then alleged that the then telecom minister, Dayanidhi Maran, had allegedly pressured Ratan Tata to divest 33 per cent of the stake in Tata-Star DTH project to the Sun TV group, at a price much lower than market rate. The Tatas awaited nod for their telecom project then.
Responding to the disclosures, AIADMK leader Jayalalitha went on the offensive. Presiding over a mass marriage function to solemnise 63 weddings of poor couples to coincide with her 63rd birthday on February 24, she hit out at the DMK alleging that “one political party alone has swindled a huge amount of money from just one Central Ministry in a few years.”
She urged the people “to give a fitting reply in the coming Assembly polls by unseating the DMK.”