Chennai, April 1: The Enforcement Directorate today attached assets worth Rs 742 crore held by former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and brother Kalanithi in connection with its money-laundering probe into the Aircel-Maxis deal, adding to their woes and embarrassing the DMK.
The properties included the headquarters of Kalanithi's Sun TV - a 10-storied high-tech hub (worth Rs 266 crore) - the office complex of his cable distribution company Kal Communications (Rs 161 crore) and financial assets.
"This attachment is issued in respect of the offence of money laundering relating to the illegal gratification amounting to Rs 742.58 crore received by Dayanidhi Maran," the ED said in a statement issued in Delhi.
The Marans are already in a soup - elder brother Kalanithi, 50, had to shed his stake in SpiceJet after it ran into financial trouble, losing badly in the bargain.
Then came the arrests of two employees of Sun TV and Dayanidhi's secretary in a scam. The siblings have been charged by the CBI with illegally diverting calls from a BSNL exchange installed at the Chennai residence of Dayanidhi (when he was telecom minister in the UPA government) to uplink Sun TV programmes, causing a loss of Rs 440 crore to the Centre-owned telecom giant.
After the arrests in January, Dayanidhi, 48, had accused the Narendra Modi government of acting at the behest of their rival Jayalalithaa.
The brothers' efforts to stall the CBI probe in the Aircel-Maxis case also failed as the Supreme Court asked them to approach the trial court.
The ED has based its money-laundering case against the Marans following a CBI probe against them and their firms in which they have been charged with criminal conspiracy and corruption.
In 2011, the CBI had registered an FIR in the 2G case and alleged that Maran had as telecom minister coerced Aircel owner Sivasankaran to sell his entire stake to Malaysian businessman T. Ananda Krishnan, the Maxis owner. Later, in a quid pro quo arrangement, Maxis invested Rs 650 crore in Sun TV, the agency alleged.
After today's attachment, bank deposits cannot be touched. The companies may continue to operate from the buildings but the properties cannot be sold, transferred or offered as security for loans. For Kalanithi, already reeling from the SpiceJet losses, the ED's move is bound to hit his mainstay Sun TV's stocks.
Rivals were already hitting out at the siblings and DMK chief Karunanidhi.
AIADMK spokesperson Avadi Kumar cited the attachment figures to claim "the Karunanidhi family is the wealthiest in south India as alleged by our leader (Jayalalithaa)". "This case was not filed by the AIADMK or the BJP but by the Congress when the DMK was very much part of the UPA government," Kumar added.
Others explained why today's blow would be hard to live down. "This will be a potent riposte in the hands of the AIADMK as the DMK has been targeting Jayalalithaa for her conviction (last year) in the assets case," said a senior lawyer.
Karunanidhi is already facing trouble with his own Kalaignar TV under ED scanner for an alleged hawala transaction of Rs 230 crore - which some have alleged was a kickback in the 2G scam. His wife Dayalu, daughter Kanimozhi and nephew Amirtham have been named in the case as they were Kalaignar directors when the cash changed hands.
Added to all this is the worry that Kanimozhi could be convicted in the 2G case in the special court verdict expected in September.
