CBI Court Discharges Maran Brothers in Illegal Telephone Exchange Scam

NEW DELHI:
Former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran have been discharged by a CBI court in an alleged illegal telephone exchange scam case. Special judge Natarajan said he was discharging all seven accused from the case as there was no prima facie evidence to prove the charges against them.
In February this year, the CBI argued opposing the discharge petitions filed by Dayanidhi, Kalanithi Maran and others, saying there was prima facie material to proceed against them. Counsel for the Marans said they were innocent and had not caused any loss.
According to the CBI, Dayanidhi Maran, during the check period of June 2004 to December 2006, when he was Union minister for communication and information technology, had misused his office and installed a private telephone exchange at his residences in Chennai and utilised the facility for business transactions involving Sun Network.
It said he had caused a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer. More than 700 telecom lines had been installed at their residences in Boat Club and Gopalapuram here, the agency charged.
Among the accused were former BSNL general manager K Brahmnathan, former deputy general manager M P Velusamy and Dayanidhi Maran’s private secretary Gauthaman.
Dayanidhi Maran was accused of having installed a private telephone exchange with 764 telephone lines at his residence to facilitate illegal uplink of SUN TV data, causing a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to state-run telecom majors BSNL, Chennai and MTNL, Delhi.