The Principal Special Judge for CBI cases, J Krishnamoorthy, on Wednesday turned down the bail pleas submitted by the three aides of former Union Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran, who were arrested last week by the CBI in connection with the installation of an illegal high speed ISDN telephone exchange.
V Gowthaman, additional private secretary of Dayanidhi Maran, S Kannan, chief technical officer of Sun TV (owned by Kalanidhi Maran, elder brother of Dayanidhi) and K S Ravi, electrician were arrested for illegally installing a 323 line illegal high speed ISDN telephone exchange at Dayanidhi Maran’s residence at Chennai during his tenure as Union Communications Minister (2004 to 2007). The telephone exchange was exclusively used for transmitting data, digital images pictures and voice for the Sun TV network, south India’s largest private satellite TV network. “The investigation is at a crucial stage and the accused are influential persons and there is every possibility of tampering with the evidence if they are let out on bail," Judge Krishnamoorthy said rejecting the bail plea.
The judge on Tuesday had rejected the plea of the CBI to hand over the three from judicial custody to the agency's custody for interrogation. The public exchequer a lost more than Rs 400 crore because of this unbilled and invisible telephone exchange which had underground cables connecting it with the registered office and studios of the Sun TV network, according to S Gurumurthy, the chartered accountant who brought out the details of the scam to the public opinion.