HC orders trial of Maran brothers in illegal telephone exchange case

The Madras High Court on Wednesday remitted back the illegal telephone exchange case against former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother and Sun TV group head Kalanithi Maran to a CBI special court here and ordered framing of charges against all the accused.

The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court had on March 14 discharged the Maran brothers and others from what is called the illegal telephone exchange case.

The CBI, however, preferred to go for an appeal in the high court last month.

As the case came up for hearing, the court rejected the preliminary objections raised by the Maran brothers against the appeal.

The court ordered that charges be framed against all the accused and directed for completion of the trial within 12 months.

The CBI had alleged a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the government due to the alleged installation of an illegal telephone exchange at Dayanidhi Maran's house, which was used for Sun TV operations.

The others discharged by the special CBI court were BSNL's former Chief General Manager K. Brahmanathan and former Deputy General Manager M. Velusamy, former Minister's Personal Secretary V. Gowthaman and Sun TV network employees S.Kannan and K.S. Ravi.

--IANS

vj/nir