Maran moves SC seeking stay on bail cancellation

The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday a plea by former communication minister Dayanidhi Maran seeking stay of the cancellation of his anticipatory bail in an alleged illegal telephone exchange case by the Madras High Court.

A bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur directed the hearing of matter on Wednesday after senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Tuesday told the court that Maran has been investigated in the matter twice in 2014 and twice in 2015.

The Madras High Court by an order on Monday cancelled the anticipatory bail that it had granted to Maran on June 30, saying that he should face interrogation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The high court had asked the DMK leader to surrender before the CBI in three days - by by 4.30 p.m. August 13, while accepting the CBI's plea for cancellation of anticipatory bail on the grounds that Maran did not cooperate with the investigation.

It had rejected Maran's submission that he was being falsely implicated on account of political vendetta and everything was being set-up to injure his reputation and thus humiliate him.

"This contention, in my opinion, is not reasonable and acceptable one," the court had said while junking the submission.

The court in its order had said that Maran had prima facie misused his position as minister to illegally obtain telephone connections and the allegations against him were backed by material on record.