SC stays Maran bail cancellation till Sept, gives govt a big rap

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Madras High Court order of Monday which had directed former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran to surrender to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Indicating it felt the government insistence on arrest and the like smelt of vendetta, the SC directed there be no arrest till September 14, on which date the government will have to clarify certain queries from the judges.

The order was preceded by searing remarks from the bench headed by T S Thakur.  It asked why the Attorney General of India himself was appearing in a bail matter. It asked Mukul Rohtagi, the AG, to explain the need to take Maran into custody after two years of investigation. "Political vendetta should not come into the picture; the less said, the better," the judges observed.

The charge against Maran is that he got Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) officials to install telephone lines at the then minister's residence at Chennai, for diversion to private use (of his brother's Sun TV). The judge asked if action had been taken against the BSNL officials who are accused. Why hadn't CBI proceeded in that regard? They said they failed to see the need for custodial interrogation of Maran, "unless there was some other purpose behind this".

When Rohtagi said this was a case of corruption, the judges referred to the NRHM scam in Uttar Pradesh and asked what the government had done about it, though Rs 8,000 crore went down the drain. "Not a single person has been arrested. This one is a case of a Rs 1-crore phone bill, which Maran is prepared to pay...Why do you want him in custody?"

When the judges asked Rohtagi whether the then general manager of BSNL  in Chennai had confessed to having set up  the phone facilities at the instance of the minister, Rohtagi had no immediate answer and sought time to reply and give more evidence. Maran's counsel, Shyam Divan, said that there was no criminality in the matter and the ex-minister was prepared to pay any bills due.