The CBI Court today discharged the Maran brothers and five others in the BSNL illegal telephone exchange case. The Court said that prosecution failed to prove the case.

The court said that everybody has been discharged as no case was made out. It is not 764 connections and it was blown out of proportion. There is no conspiracy and there is no record to show that it was illegally used, said sources present at the court.

Special Judge Natarajan acquitted all the seven people, saying the prosecution failed to prove the case, they said.

The CBI had accused the Maran brothers of causing loss of ₹1.76 crore to exchequer. It held that between June 2004 and December 2006, Dayanidhi Maran, when he was Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, had misused his power and allegedly installed a private telephone exchange at his residence in Chennai for business transactions involving Sun Network, which was owned by his brother Kalanidhi Maran.

The other accused who were discharged in the case were former BSNL General Manager K Brahmanathan, former Deputy General Manager MP Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran’s private secretary Gauthaman and two officials of Sun TV.

Senior counsel Kabil Sibal appeared for the Maran brothers.

CBI to appeal

PTI adds: The CBI will appeal the CBI court’s verdict in the Madras High Court, officials said here today.

They said the probe agency is shocked at the decision as it believed that it had very strong case on the basis of evidence gathered.

The CBI said it will seek legal opinion to file an appeal against the decision.

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