After former Telecom minister A Raja, who is currently lodged in Tihar jail facing corruption charges in 2G Scam, it is the Textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran who is in deep trouble over alleged irregularities in allotment of licences to Aircel during his tenure as communications minister in UPA-1 government. Reports claimed Mr Maran, as communications minister, allegedly forced Aircel to strike a deal with Maxis, which in turn was asked to invest in Sun Direct TV, owned by the Maran family.

It was alleged that Mr. Dayanidhi Maran as Telecom minister had granted Aircel high-valued licences in 14 choice circles for just 1,399 crore, against the CAG's projected value of around 22,000 crores. The Justice Shivraj Patil Committee that went into the DoT's procedures in issuing licences to Aircel in 14 choice circles for a lesser amount as per CAG in 2009 found it kept raising "unwarranted" "irrelevant" and "vague" queries to delay the Aircel application, and then cleared it doublequick when Malaysian Tamil tycoon Ananda Krishnan bought control of the company. Soon after, a Krishnan firm invested big money in Sun Direct.

BJP raised the issue by asking searching questions involving Dayanidhi Maran's family owned Sun TV Group. The BJP alleged that 74 per cent stake in Aircel was purchased by a Malaysian company Maxis Communication when Mr Maran was telecom minister. BJP spokesperson Mr Ravishankar Prasad said "Mr Maran should explain if Maxis Communication company has made any investment in Sun DTH company or any other of his family-owned companies? Secondly, was this investment done through Astro Group company, which is a subsidiary of Maxis Communication?" Interestingly, the Congress distanced itself by saying Mr Maran should answer the charges himself.