BSNL Telephone Exchange Case: CBI Moves Madras High Court Against Maran Brothers' Discharge
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday approached the Madras High Court against the discharge of former Union Telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and others.
Chennai, June 12: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday approached the Madras High Court against the discharge of former Union Telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his elder brother and media tycoon Kalanithi Maran, and seven others from the decade-old BSNL illegal telephone exchange case.
On March 14, Chennai 14th Additional City Civil Court for CBI cases discharged all the accused in the case. Judge Natarajan hearing the case, passed an order of discharging the accused as there was no prima facie evidence against them. According to a report published in DNA, Justice G Jayachandran admitted the criminal revision petition and ordered notice to Maran brothers and seven others accused in the case returnable by June 20.
Other accused who have been acquitted are former BSNL general manager K Brahmanathan, former deputy general manager M P Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran's private secretary Gauthaman, and Sun TV officials. The CBI had accused Dayanidhi of misusing his office. In its report, the CBI accused the former union minister of installing a virtual private telephone exchange at his residence in Chennai during the period of June 2004 to December 2006.
The report also named Datanidhi’s elder brother Kalanithi and his enterprise, Sun Network for the involvement in the case. The CBI had alleged that more than 700 high-end leased telecom lines were installed at the Maran residence under the service category. The bills for the same were also not raised. According to the CBI, the entire scam had caused the exchequer a loss of almost Rs 1.78 crore.
After the discharge of the Marans and others in the case, RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy who exposed the scam had expressed his disappointment. He tweeted,"The honest CBI officer who found out the crime was almost sacked for it. It is an open and shut case. The CBI should appeal against the discharge forthwith.”
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 12, 2018 02:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).