BackMaran brothers discharged in telephone exchange case
Special judge S. Natarajan, while discharging Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and five others, said that there was 'no prima facie material' to prove the charges against them
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Chennai: Former telecom minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and five others were discharged by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in the “illegal" telephone exchange case on Wednesday.
Special judge S. Natarajan, while discharging all seven accused, said that there was “no prima facie material" to prove the charges against them.
The case relates to the alleged misuse of an over 700 line telephone exchange set up at the residence of Dayanidhi Maran in 2004-06 when he was telecom minister and its misuse for Sun TV Network Ltd, owned by his brother.
According to the CBI, Dayanidhi Maran misused his office to install the telephone exchange at his residence in Chennai and the same was utilized by Sun Network, which caused a loss of Rs1.78 crore to the exchequer.
Kalanithi Maran is the chairman and managing director of Sun Group.
The then telecom minister’s personal secretary V. Gowthaman, former chief general manager of BSNL K. Brahmanathan, former deputy general manager of BSNL M. Velusamy, Sun TV Network’s vice-president (technical) S. Kannan and technician K.S. Ravi, were the others discharged by the CBI court.
This is the DMK’s second legal victory in less than three months. The party’s Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi and former telecom minister A. Raja were acquitted by a CBI court in December in the infamous 2G spectrum case.
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