CBI opposes discharge pleas of Maran brothers in telephone exchange case

Chennai: The CBI on Tuesday strongly opposed the discharge petitions filed by former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and others in the illegal telephone exchange scam case, saying there was prima facie material to proceed against them.

When the petitions came up for hearing before Special CBI court judge S Natarajan, special public prosecutor for CBI contended that Dayanidhi Maran, a DMK leader, abused his position as a Union minister to benefit the family-owned SUN TV group from 2004 to 2006. Counsel for the Maran brothers and others argued they were innocent and had not committed any irregularities as alleged by the prosecution.

The special public prosecutor accused Dayanidhi Maran 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.

Besides the Maran brothers, SUN TV network’s chief technical officer S Kannan and electrician K S Ravi and Dayanidhi Maran’s private secretary Gowthaman, were also involved in scam, he contended.Claiming there was prima facie material to proceed against them, he wanted the court to dismiss the discharge petitions. Judge Natarajan directed both sides to file their affidavits and adjourned the matter to March 5 for further hearing.