Maran brothers let off by court in phone exchange case
In a relief to DMK leader and former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, a special CBI court here on Wednesday discharged him, his brother Kalanithi and five other accused in the “illegal” telephone exchange case.
By : migrator
Update: 2018-03-14 19:37 GMT
Chennai
Holding that there was no sufficient material to frame charges against any of them, Special judge S Natarajan allowed the petitions filed by the Maran brothers and others seeking their discharge. The judge had on March 9 reserved orders for Wednesday in the case related to alleged 700 telephone line exchange set up at the residence of Dayanidhi Maran in 2004-06 when he was the minister and its ‘misuse’ for Sun TV owned by his brother.
Other accused who have been discharged are former BSNL general manager K Brahmanathan, former BSNL deputy general manager M P Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran’s private secretary V Gauthaman, and K S Ravi and S Kannan of Sun TV.
“I now stand vindicated..I believe in our judicial system, I am so happy that justice has triumphed,” Dayanidhi said, while reacting to the court’s verdict. He dubbed the charges against him in the case as “exaggerated lies, sensationalised lies.”
This is the second corruption case by CBI where DMK leaders have got legal relief. Earlier, a Delhi special court had acquitted former union minister and DMK leader A Raja and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, daughter of party patriarch M Karunanidhi, in the 2G spectrum case. Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who had appeared for the Maran brothers, had contended that the case was foisted on them.
LINE CLEAR
- The CBI in its charge sheet had alleged that an illegal private telephone exchange was set up at the city residence of Dayanidhi during 2004-06 when he was the Telecom Minister and used for the business transactions involving the Sun Network owned by his brother Kalanithi.
- The central agency had alleged that Dayanidhi had caused a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer.
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