CBI court discharges Maran brothers and all other accused from illegal telephone exchange case

CHENNAI: In a major relief to former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother Kalanidhi Maran, a special court for CBI cases here on Wednesday discharged them from the decade-old illegal telephone exchange case.
Special judge Natarajan said he was discharging all the seven accused from the case since there was no prima facie evidence to prove the charges against them.
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.
It said he had caused a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer. More than 700 telecom lines had been installed at their residences in Boat Club and Gopalapuram here, the agency charged.
Among the accused were former BSNL general manager K Brahmnathan, former deputy general manager M P Velusamy and Dayanidhi Maran's private secretary Gauthaman.