The special court, in its two separate orders running into

526 pages, said that the case was based on the foundation that Dayanidhi and Sarma deliberately delayed the approval relating to several issues, including the issuance of UAS licences to

Aircel, to force Chennai-based promoter C Sivasankaran to exit from the telecom sector. 526 pages, said that the case was based on the foundation that Dayanidhi and Sarma deliberately

delayed the approval relating to several issues, including the issuance of UAS licences to Aircel, to force Chennai-based promoter C Sivasankaran to exit from the telecom sector. "All

the nine allegations have been found to be without any legal evidence. There is no legally admissible evidence on record to indicate any incriminating conduct of the two (Dayanidhi and

Sarma). As such, the very foundation of the case is knocked out that the delay was meant to choke the business environment of Siva group of companies. "Thus, the case can be disposed of

on the basis of these findings alone as once the very concept of delay is not accepted, nothing survives in the case...," the court said. It also said that other points contained in

the charge sheet were also without any merit. The court said that the statement of the complainant was not supported by material on record regarding non-consideration of his representations

by the then minister. While dismissing CBI's contention regarding conspiracy between Dayanidhi and Sarma, the court said, "From the material on record, it is difficult to infer any

conspiracy between the two. Simply because the minister is asking a particular officer to perform certain official acts, one cannot call them conspirators...There is no material to indicate

that Dayanidhi or Sarma were responsible for delay in considering the representations of Sivasankaran or for not considering them at all." The judge further said, "I am satisfied

that there were no issues which were the making of the minister or the secretary which constricted the business environment of C Sivasankaran resulting in the sale of company to Maxis."

While noting that Sivasankaran's statement was based on speculation, surmises and conjectures and was totally contrary to the record, the court said, "There is no ground to

presume that the business environment of Siva group was constricted or choked enough as to pressurise them into selling its companies to Maxis and that the subsequent sale was the result of

pressure from any quarter including the minister or Ralph Marshall...This allegation is based entirely on the oral statement of Sivasankaran." (This article has not been edited by

DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)