Maran brothers discharged from illegal telephone exchange case for lack of evidence
Chennai, Mar 14 (IBNS) : In a huge relief to former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran and his media tycoon elder brother Kalanidhi Maran, a special CBI court on Wednesday discharged them and five others from the decade-old illegal telephone exchange case, reports said.
While allowing the discharge petition filed by them, Special judge Natarajan said he was discharging all the seven accused from the case in the absence of prima facie evidence.
The Maran brothers and five others appeared before the court.
The others named in the charge sheet are the former Minister's then personal secretary V.Gowthaman, BSNL former Chief General Managers K. Brahmanathan, former Deputy General Manager M.Velusamy, Sun TV network's Vice president, (Technical) S.Kannan and a technician K.S.Ravi.
Alleging a loss of Rs. 1.78 crore to the exchequer, the CBI had invoked provisions under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the CBI, Dayanidhi Maran, during the check period of June 2004 to December 2006, when he was Union minister for communication and information technology, had misused his office and installed a private telephone exchange at his residences in Chennai and utilised the facility for business transactions involving Sun Network.
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