Media baron Kalanithi Maran's close aide Hansraj Saxena, facing a slew of criminal lawsuits and just out of a two-month prison stint on conditional bail, has resigned from the Sun TV Network. Saxena was the COO, in charge of the company's pictures division, which last year created history by producing India's costliest movie Endhiran.

Saxena sent his resignation letter three days back, his lawyer N Senthil Kumar told ET. "My client felt there should not be any embarrassment for the company due to the lawsuits he is facing. He spoke to Sun TV CMD Kalanithi Maran and has decided to step down," Senthil Kumar said. Sun TV CMD Kalanithi Maran and CEO K Vijay Kumar couldn't be reached for comments.

Saxena was arrested on July 3 and spent more than two months in custody. The initial charge against him was of defrauding a movie distributor. However, he has since quickly attracted a slew of cases under charges as varied as land grabbing and blackmailing.

On September 14, he was released on conditional bail. A close friend of Maran, Saxena was part of the founding team of Sun TV. Before running the movies production division, Saxena was handling the programming portfolio of Sun TV. "Now he faces 16 cases. I am explaining cases to him like cinema scripts each day," the lawyer said.

To fill Saxena's long absence, Sun TV had appointed C Sembian Sivakumar, an old-timer in Maran's empire. He was appointed as president of the films division. Sun TV's 2011 annual report did not include Saxena's name under management personnel, something it has done in previous years.

The arrest of Saxena had rocked Sun TV and doubts were raised about its ability to continue as a key producer and distributor of Tamil movies.