The Madras High Court on Tuesday rejected the plea of three individuals accused in the illegal telephone exchange case, involving the Maran brothers, to give an opportunity to their counsel to make submissions before the trial court at the time of framing of charges on Wednesday.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh made it clear that at the time of framing charges, the trial court could only put the material submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the accused directly and there was no requirement to hear their counsel on sufficiency of material.
The judge, however, reiterated a clarification issued by the Supreme Court on January 21 that the charges against the accused must not be framed on the basis of assumptions and that they must be framed strictly on the basis of material available before the trial court.
Though former Telecommunication Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother Kalanidhi Maran of Sun TV Network were the prime accused in the case, the clarification was issued on petitions filed by co-accused S. Kannan, Vedagiri Gowthaman and K.S. Ravi.
The petitioners apprehended that the trial court might proceed to frame charges on Wednesday solely on the basis of the draft charges submitted by the prosecution.
