Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday targeted Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran over his alleged involvement in favouring a company in the 2G spectrum allocation and called for his resignation from the Union Cabinet.
"The Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) should ask for Dayanidhi Maran's resignation from the Cabinet. I am sure he will do it if he has already not done it," Jayalalithaa said in Chennai.
The BJP demanded that allegations of Maran's involvement in the 2G scam should be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Demanding his resignation from the Union Cabinet, the BJP said that Singh should sack Maran if he did not quit voluntarily.
According to a report in the Tehelka magazine, Maran deliberately delayed licences when he was telecom minister in 2006 to benefit Aircel promoters Maxis, which in turn invested over Rs 600 crore in companies owned by the Maran family's Sun Group.
Maran is the third DMK MP after former telecom minister A Raja and Kanimozhi to face the 2G heat. His role as telecom minister was earlier questioned in the justice Shivraj Patil report. The report observed that Maran had deviated from procedures.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), meanwhile, has told CNN-IBN that the agency is also actively investigating the transactions in the telecom ministry between 2001 and 2007.
Maran though remains defiant and has sent a legal notice to Tehelka claiming the report was baseless.
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