BJP ups ante against Chidambaram for alleged favouring of son in Aircel-Maxis deal

New Delhi, May 8 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday took Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to task for allegedly influencing the Aircel-Maxis deal that eventually benefited his son's company.

A high-level meeting of senior BJP leaders was held here today to discuss this issue.

Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that Chidambaram had deliberately delayed permission for buying 74 percent of Aircel-Maxis shares for his own gain.

"The BJP is going to raise the matter very seriously in both Houses. The glaring case of the government not coming with true facts pertaining to the deliberate delay caused in FIB clearance of the Aircel-Maxis deal because of the interest of the then Finance Minister," he said.

Prasad also came down heavily on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for complicating the matter so as to cover up the senior leaders of the ruling Congress Party.

"The CBI as per our information is trying to torpedo a fair investigation into the entire deal relating to transfer of shares of Aircel-Maxis in which the role of then telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran of forcibly forcing the owner of the company to sell it and to the foreign investor also investing in company of the brother of Dayanidhi Maran," said Prasad.

"All these things make out a very serious case of corruption and conflict of interest," he added.

Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy had earlier accused Chidambaram of delaying permission for the sale of Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis in 2006 when he was the Finance Minister of the country so that his son Karthi was financially benefitted.

According to reports, Swamy had also shot off a letter to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh seeking Chidambaram's resignation and directing the CBI to include the names of the Minister and his son in the FIR on Aircel- Maxis deal along with former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

Karthi had, however, categorically rejected allegation of corruption leveled against him and his father, who was a Finance Minister then, as baseless. (ANI)