Indian arrest warrant on Ananda not valid: IGP

PETALING JAYA: Police cannot arrest local tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan and Astro official Ralph Marshall based on an arrest warrant issued by India over an alleged corruption case there.Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said this when asked if Malaysian police would act on the Indian arrest warrants issued against the duo, as highlighted in The New Indian Express.

"No, we do not have any agreement with India that we can execute their warrant of arrest.

No, we cannot do that (arrest)," Khalid was quoted as saying by the news portal.

The Indian newspaper stated that India's Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) had applied to a special CBI court for arrest warrants against Ananda and Marshall, who are alleged to have been involved in the Aircel-Maxis case involving India's former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran.

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CBI reportedly said that they were seeking arrest warrants as the summons had not been served on the accused.

According to the report, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in May had issued a summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to examine Ananda and Marshall, both of which were sent to Malaysia's Home Ministry.

The warrants were also issued against four companies – namely Maxis Communication Berhad, Astro All Asia Network PLC, Sun Direct TV Pvt Ltd and Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd.

In August 2014, the CBI charged the Maran brothers, Ananda, Marshall and the four companies in the case.

The CBI had alleged that Dayanidhi had "pressured" and "forced" Chennai-based telecom promoter C Sivasankaran to sell his stakes in Aircel and two subsidiary companies to Malaysian firm Maxis Group in 2006.

Maxis had, in the past, denied the allegations, saying that all its dealings had been in full-compliance with the laws of India when it bought the stake in 2007.

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The Aircel-Maxis case is known in India as the 2G spectrum scam in which politicians and government officials allegedly undercharged mobile phone companies for frequency allocation licences, which they then used to create 2G spectrum subscriptions for cell phones.

As a result, the CBI had alleged, the Indian government lost USD4.6 billion in possible revenue.

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