New Delhi: Former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his elder brother Kalanidhi Maran and others have moved the Supreme Court against a Madras high court order asking them to face trial in the decade-old illegal BSNL telephone exchange case.
The HC while setting aside the trial court order discharging them from the case remitted the case back to the special court for CBI cases and directed the court to continue the trial and complete framing of charges within 12 weeks.
The special CBI court had in March discharged Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi and others accused in the case. The trial court had allowed the petitions filed by Maran brothers and others seeking their discharge, holding that there was no prima facie case against them.
A three judge bench headed by the Chief Justice Dipak Misra agreed to list the appeals filed by the Maran brothers for hearing on July 30.
In 2013, the CBI had accused Dayanidhi of misusing his office and installing a virtual private telephone exchange at his residence in Chennai, which was used for business deals involving elder brother Kalanithi's enterprise, Sun Network. Maran was telecom minister between June 2004 and December 2006.
The agency had alleged that more than 700 high-end leased telecom lines were installed at the Maran residence in Chennai under the service category, against which bills were never raised. CBI had claimed alleged this ‘scam’ caused the exchequer a loss of almost Rs 1.78 crore. The agency filed a chargesheet in the case on December 9, 2016.
Assailing this order, the Maran brothers said the high court had allowed the CBI's appeal without affording them an opportunity of hearing the matter on merits. The order was in contravention of the statutory mandate of Section 40 (1) of Cr. P.C. and the principles of natural justice. They pleaded for quashing the High Court order.
