Madras High Court gives Dayanidhi Maran 3 days to surrender to CBI

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“After evaluating the entire available material against Maran, I find prima facie the exact role he, being the Union minister for communications and information technology, played in misusing his office for wrongful gain by obtaining telephone connections illegally in the name of BSNL officials under ‘service category’… I do not find any frivolity in the prosecution’s demand,” said Justice S Vaidhyanathan.

Although the FIR in the case was lodged in 2013, CBI had not made any effort to arrest the former minister until recently. Noting the fact, the court refused to entertain Maran’s argument that he was falsely implicated the accusations were aimed at injuring and humiliating him. Referring to the “huge magnitude of the case”, the court added: “I find considerable force in the contention raised by Additional Solicitor-General of India, when a number of undertrials have been languishing in jails even for petty offences, then, why Maran should be extended special concession… when serious allegations of corruption, cheating and causing wrongful loss to the exchequer of the government to the tune of crores of rupees, have been attributed to him.”

In its chargesheet, the CBI had said that Maran, during his term as Union telecom ministers, had laid 300 high-speed lines to his Boat Club Road residence in Chennai and the lines were used for faster transmission of signals of channels of Sun TV network, owned by his brother Kalanithi Maran.

The agency had also alleged that Maran had obtained 364 actual telephone numbers/lines without entitlement. The billing addresses of these connections were offices of chief general managers, BSNL, Chennai Telephones.