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In a setback to former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran, the Madras High Court today dismissed their petition seeking quashing of charges filed against them by a trial court in the illegal telephone exchange case.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh also directed the CBI special court to complete the trial in four months.
In the two-year-old case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had accused the Maran brothers of causing a loss of ₹1.78 crore to the exchequer.
It had alleged that between June 2004 and December 2006, when Dayanidhi Maran was the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, he misused his power and allegedly set up a private telephone exchange at his residence in Chennai for business transactions involving Sun Network, which is owned by his brother Kalanithi Maran. The CBI relied upon 124 documents, mostly files maintained by BSNL, and the statements of 62 witnesses.
Interestingly, the court order comes just three days after Dayanidhi Maran was announced as DMK’s candidate for the Chennai (Central) Lok Sabha constituency.
Judge talks tough
Justice Venkatesh said that the petitioners have consumed “sufficient” judicial time of the court.
It is the third time that the court is being called upon to interfere with the proceedings of the trial court at the stage of framing charges.
The court cannot interfere with the proceedings of the trial court at each and every step, the judge said.
If the petitioners are confident that they have a strong case and none of the charges framed by the court can be sustained by the prosecution, they must willingly go ahead, face the trial and get an honourable acquittal. The petitioners have ensured that the case does not cross the threshold of framing of charges and they have come up with the same plea every time by giving it a different form, the judge observed.
“If the petitioners adopt any dilatory tactics, it is open to the trial court to insist upon their presence and remand them to custody as laid down by the Supreme Court in State of Uttar Pradesh vs Shambhu Nath Singh. Consequently, the connected miscellaneous petitions are closed,” the order said.
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