The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed petitions filed by former Union Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and three others to quash all charges framed against them by a special court for CBI cases in the alleged illegal BSNL telephone exchange case.
Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira, however, remanded the matter to the special court for framing of charges in accordance with law since the petitioners had claimed that there were certain errors such as framing of common charges against all accused without any material to substantiate individual involvement.
He added that, if necessary, the prosecution could assist the special court by submitting draft charges.
Appearing on behalf of Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, his counsel had argued that the basic premise on which the CBI had rested its case itself was false and therefore his client, who had brought in 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. It was also contended 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.
It was the further contention of the former Minister 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.
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, Mr. Dayanidhi Maran said, it would not preclude the court from examining the charges framed pursuant to those orders and quash them if they were found to be untenacious.
Apart from the Maran brothers, SUN TV electrician K.S. Ravi, the former minister’s personal secretary V. Gowthaman and the television network’s Chief Technical Officer S. Kannan had also sought to quash the charges.
Former Chief General Managers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) K.B. Brahmadathan and M.P. Velusamy, who were the other two accused in the case, had not filed any petition challenging the charges framed against them.
