Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his elder brother Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV Network and three others have moved the Madras High Court, seeking to quash charges framed against them in the telephone exchange case by a special court for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cases in Chennai on August 30.
A battery of five senior counsel argued the matter for half a day. However, Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira made it clear that he was not inclined to pass any interim order and adjourned it to October 3 after CBI Special Public Prosecutor K. Srinivasan said he shall file his response by September 28 and serve it on thepetitioners’ counsel.
Appearing on behalf of Mr. Dayanidhi, senior counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul contended that the basic premise on which the CBI had rested its case itself was false and therefore his client, who had brought in the telecommunication revolution in the country should not be put through the ordeal of facing the trial without any basis whatsoever.
He said the charge of his client having obtained more than 760 telephone connections at his residence, during his ministership, was completely wrong. He asserted that Mr. Maran had obtained only 10 connections at his residence in Chennai and around 12 to 13 connections in Delhi. These parent connections had several “child numbers” attached to them. Even otherwise, there was no bar under law for a Minister to obtain multiple telephone connections, given the nature of work that he/she performs. He argued that the CBI had proceeded on the basis of an erroneous assumption that a cap of three telephone connections imposed on the Members of Parliament would apply to the Ministers.
Thirdly, Mr. Kaul contended that there was no shred of evidence to prove that the telephone connections obtained by the Minister were illegally used by Sun TV Network, owned by his elder brother. He said the telephone connections could at the most be used only for phone-in television programmes and there was no material to prove such usage.
It was also argued that though the Supreme Court had refused to interfere with the High Court’s July 25 order which reversed discharge of all seven accused from the case by the special court on March 14, it would not preclude the court from examining the charges framed pursuant to those orders and quash them if they were found to be un-tenacious.
Senior counsel Amit Desai representing Mr. Kalanithi Maran, A. Ramesh representing SUN TV electrician K.S. Ravi, P. Wilson representing the former Minister’s personal secretary V. Gowthaman and A.R.L. Sundaresan appearing on behalf of the television network’s Chief Technical Officer S. Kannan, also submitted their arguments on the same lines.
Former Chief General Managers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) K.B. Brahmadathan and M.P. Velusamy, who had also been arrayed as the accused in the case, had not filed any petition challenging the charges framed against them.
