Yet another attempt by Dayanidhi Maran, former Union Minister for Information Technology and his elder brother Kalanidhi Maran came a nought as the Madras High Court dismissed their petition challenging the framing of charges against them by the CBI in the illegal telephone exchange case that had resulted in the exchequer losing Rs 1.87 crore.
The Maran brothers are the grand nephews of late M Karunanidhi, the DMK chief and the sons of Murasoli Maran, former Union Minister. Justice A D Jagadish Chandira, who heard the Marans dismissed their plea and asked them to stand trial on the case which would be heard by one of the special courts set up to hear the CBI cases.
This is the third attempt by the Marans to derail the case registered by the CBI after investigation based on revelations by S Gurumurthy, chief editor, Thuglaq, that Dayanidhi Maran, during his tenure as union minister for communications (2004 to 2007) had set up an illegal telephone exchange at his residence in Chennai misusing his official power.
According to the CBI, Dayanidhi Maran used the network for the commercial telecasting business of Sun Network, owned by his brother Kalanidhi Maran. The investigating agency had told the trial court that exchequer had lost Rs 1.78 crore because of the illegal telephone exchange.
The Special CBI court in Chennai had acquitted all the accused in the month of March 2018 telling there were not enough materials to frame charges. The CBI approached the Madras High Court against the trial court order . Justice G Jayachandran who heard the appeal by the CBI said : “Error, illegality, and perversity all could be pointed out in the impugned trial court order”. Though the Marans rushed to the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of the Madras High Court order, the apex court asked them to stand trial in the case.
Following the dismissal of their petition in the Supreme Court, R Vasanthi, the XIV additional special judge for CBI cases, charged frames against the Maram brothers along with their five associates under Section 120-B of the IPC (Criminal Conspiracy), Criminal Breach of Trust (section 409), Cheating (section 420) and criminal misconduct by public servants (Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act).
The trial was to begin on September 14 when the Marans in a last-ditch attempt approached the Madras High Court which dismissed their petition on Friday. Gurumurthy, the man who brought to light the illegal telephone exchange scam is of the view that there are more skeletons in the cupboards which has escaped the normal eyes. He said the Marans were using 764 illegal telephone lines for high speed data transfer to facilitate their private TV network business. “The cost of installation of Rs 1.73 crore mentioned in the charge sheet is peanuts as compared to the unaccounted user charges on the 764 stolen lines,” said Gurumurthy.
He said that the investigating agency would be able to assess the gains made by the Sun Network and the losses suffered by the exchequer because of the misuse of these 764 lines with the help of the National Gateway.