The Madras High Court on Wednesday quashed a CBI trial court order discharging former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran, and five others in the illegal telephone exchange case.
It has ordered framing of charges against them within 12 months.
Justice G Jayachandran delivered the judgment on criminal revision petitions filed by the State through the Deputy Superintendent of Police, CBI.
On March 14, the trial court had exonerated all the seven accused in the case, saying there was no prima facie case against them.
The CBI had alleged that Dayanidhi Maran had entered into criminal conspiracy with KB Brahmadatham and MP Velusamy (both were then CGMs of BSNL, Chennai) between May 2004 and May 2007, and obtained 764 telephone numbers at his residences in Chennai (Boat Club) and Delhi under the service category without his entitlement. In doing so, Dayanidhi violated all procedures and norms, and caused undue loss of ₹1.78 crore to the government exchequer, and gain to his brother Kalanithi, who owns the SUN TV network, and Vedagiri Gowthaman (then additional private secretary to Dayanidhi).
KS Ravi (then an electrician at SUN TV) and S Kannan (then CTO of SUN TV) were also part of the criminal conspiracy, and had played crucial roles in obtaining and maintaining these illegal telephone connections. Velusamy also helped Dayanidhi falsify records to prove that no dues were recoverable from him towards telephone charges.
In his judgment, Justice Jayachandran said that considering the police report and the documents, the “there are grounds to presume all the seven accused have committed offence and not otherwise”.
“In the result, the Criminal Revision Petition [671, 682 to 684 of 2018] are allowed, the trial court is directed to frame charges and complete the trial within a period of 12 months. Registry is directed to send back the records to the trial Court forthwith,” the judgment said.