New Delhi: A special CBI court on Wednesday discharged the Maran brothers — Dayanidhi and Kalanithi — and five others in the Illegal telephone exchange scam.
The Maran brothers had moved a petition in October last year seeking dismissal of the case.
On February 27, the CBI had strongly opposed the discharge petitions filed by former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother saying there was prima facie material to proceed against them.
When the petitions came up for hearing before Special CBI court judge S Natarajan, the special public prosecutor for CBI contended that Dayanidh, a DMK leader, had abused his position as a Union minister to benefit the family-owned SUN TV group from 2004 to 2006.
following the verdict, the CBI issued statement, saying, "We are yet to receive the copy of the judgment related to illegal Telephone Exchange case against Shri Dayanidhi Maran, the then Union Minister of Communication & IT and others. We will examine the judgment and seek appropriate legal remedy in the matter."
Counsel for the Maran brothers and others had argued they were innocent and had not committed any irregularities as alleged by the prosecution.
The special public prosecutor accused Dayanidhi of having installed a private telephone exchange with 764 telephone lines at his residence to facilitate illegal uplink of SUN TV data, causing a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to state-run telecom majors BSNL, Chennai and MTNL, Delhi.
Besides the Maran brothers, SUN TV network's Chief Technical Officer S Kannan and electrician K S Ravi and Dayanidhi Maran's private secretary Gowthaman, were also involved in scam, he contended.
Claiming there was prima facie material to proceed against them, he wanted the court to dismiss the discharge petitions.
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