A Special court here on Thursday discharged former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanidhi Maran and others in the corruption and money laundering cases connected with the Aircel-Maxis deal.

"I discharge all the accused in the two cases," Special Judge O .P. Saini said in his brief order.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had probed probed the corruption case, while the Enforcement Directorate the money laundering charges.

The CBI in its charge sheet had alleged that the former Minister had entered into a criminal conspiracy with T. Ananda Krishnan, owner of Malaysian company Maxis, and coerced Chinnakannan Sivasankaran, owner of Aircel, to sell his shares to the former allegedly in lieu of investments by the foreign company through another company into Sun Direct TV Pvt. Ltd. Dayanidhi Maran is one of the promoters of Sun Direct.

The ED complaint alleged that Rs. 742.58 crore was paid for Mr. Dayanidhi Maran by two Mauritius-based companies through Sun Direct TV Pvt. Ltd and South Asia FM Ltd.

The two companies are owned and controlled by Mr. Kalanidhi Maran, brother of Dayanidhi Maran, and the money was utilised by these companies for their business, the complaint alleged.

This news report was first published in The Hindu online edition.