 "CBI files chargesheet against Maran brothers and BSNL officials")
The case was related to alleged 364 illegal telephone connections installed at Chennai residence of Maran, when he was the Union Miniser of Telecom.
CBI also filed the charged against then two Chief General Managers (now retired), BSNL, then Additional PS to Maran, two then officials of a private channel and then Chairman & Managing Director of private channel. Marans were not immediately available for comment.
CBI release said that it has registered a case on July 23, 2013 U/s 120-B r/w 409, 420 of IPC and U/s 13(2) r/w 13(1) (d) of PC Act, 1988 against then Union Minister, Communication & Information Technology; then two Chief General Managers, both of Chennai Telephones and others on the allegations of installing a number of high end telecommunication facilities having PRA/BRA/ISDN/Leased Line etc. at the residence of then Union Minister of Communication & Information Technology at Chennai, illegally under service category and did not raise bills for the same during the period from 2004 to 2007 and thereby caused huge loss to the Government Exchequer.
It was alleged that between June 2004 and December 2006, around 364 telephone numbers/lines were installed at Gopalapuram, Chennai residence of the then Union Minister and during the period December 2006 to September 2007, around 353 number of telephone lines were installed at Ist Avenue Boat Club Road, Chennai which was the new residence of Maran.
It was further alleged that around 10 post-paid mobile connections with vanity numbers in respect of nine numbers were given to a private television channel as per the verbal orders of Maran and that these connections were given under "service category" and no bill was raised.
There was huge data transfer, which included voice, video & audio through these telephone connections and all these facilities were allegedly used for the benefits of said television channel network, owned by his brother. It may be noted, Maran's elder brother Kalanithi Maran runs Sun Television Network.
It was further alleged that no payment was made for installation charges as well as for rentals of these telephone connections which included High end facilities Iike ISDN-PRA-BRA, broadband, leased circuits with OFC laying connecting both the residents thereby, causing an alleged loss to the tune of around Rs 1,20,87,769 to the BSNL, which did not include the call charges.
The investigation has revealed that altogether 764 telephone numbers were allegedly provided to then Minister of Communication & IT by BSNL, Chennai Telephones and MTNL, New Delhi. No bills were allegedly raised for all these facilities and thereby an alleged loss to the tune of around Rs 1,78,71,393 was caused to BSNL, Chennai and MTNL, Delhi.
The above findings are based on the investigation done by CBI and evidence collected by it. Under the Indian law, the accused are presumed to be innocent till their guilt is finally established after a fair trial, said CBI.
