No Clarity Yet on Marans' Whereabouts

Express News Service

13th June 2014 07:57 AM

CHENNAI: As the CBI is tightening the noose around the Maran brothers, accused in the secret telephone exchange scam, the whereabouts of former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi and his elder borther and media czar Kalanidhi, remains a mystery.

It is learnt that the central agency that is probing the case has summoned them to appear before the investigation team on Monday.

EVen as strong rumours are doing the rounds that Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi, who is the owner of the multi-million Sun Group, have left for Brazil to watch the football carnival, a person close to the Dayanidhi has refuted it.

“Dayanidhi is in Chennai,” he told Express, maintaining that the rumours were wrong.

However, CBI sources said the brothers have been strictly directed to appear before them and cut short any foreign trip they are undertaking.

According to sources intelligence agencies suspect that the brothers could have flown out of the country from some other cities in the country.

The case has it that Dayanidhi, who was the Union Telecom Minister between 2004 and 2007, abused his official position to draw 323 telephone lines to his residence at Boat Club in Chennai, which was used to upload signals of the Sun TV Network owned by his brother Kalanidhi Maran.

The scam that caused several hundred crores of loss to the state-run BSNL came to light after an expose by the Express which revealed a secret report prepared by the CBI in 2007 about the illegal exchange set up at his residence.

Hansraj Saxena, former senior executive of the Sun TV Network and once the Man Friday of the Marans, had confessed to the CBI that he had knowledge about the illegal use of the BSNL lines to upload the signals of the channels of the network.

The CBI, which has collected material evidences of the scam, had summoned Dayanidhi Maran and Kalanidhi Maran to appear before it on Monday for interrogation.

Hotel Buhari Set to Give Way for Metro

Buhari opposite Central railway station in the city | R Satish Babu

TNIE  C Shivakumar

 13th June 2014 07:32 AM

Buhari Hotel, a landmark for decades opposite the Central Railway Station, will vanish, paving the way for the Metro Rail.

Clearing the decks for the landmark to be razed, the Madras High Court with a “heavy he art” dismissed the petition of Buhari Sons even while admitting violation of Rule of Law in the resumption of lands.

Justice V Dhanapalan, after hearing the petition challenging the GO directing the group to vacate the land and hand over possession for Chennai Metro Rail Project, in a common order said the Court was constrained to hold that there is a violation of Rule of Law by the authorities. “With a heavy heart, by giving due respect to the ratio decidendi of the Supreme Court, we are left with no other choice but to follow the same under Article 141 of the Constitution,” the judge said. The petitioners were tenants of the building constructed by a Trust, the Rajah Sir Ramasamy Mudaliar Choultry. The bone of contention is the 1.33-acre land, given to build a choultry in 1888.

In 1958 the government allowed A M Buhari to construct the building and carry out business and a lease deed was executed on January 31, 1959 for 20 years with an option for renewal. Thereafter a GO was issued vesting the land with the Official Trustee under a scheme framed by the High Court.

The Court observed that the Government did not take any order either from the scheme court or from the Administrator General and Official Trustee (AGOT) Court. “Though there were attempts by the executive to file applications — one by Chennai Metro Rail Limited and the other by District Collector, subsequently, the same were withdrawn. So, it is clear that there was no order made by AGOT Court, the court of competent jurisdiction to permit handover  of the possession of the land in its control to the government, for resumption,” the Court observed.

The government bypassing an act under which the entrustment has been made, would amount to violation of the basic structure of the Constitution and the power of separation which has been demarcated could not be usurped by one organ on its own, it was noted.

“The facts and the position in law are that the buildings constructed on the piece of government land did not belong to government, the petitioners were in possession of the buildings and by virtue of enactments binding on the Government, the petitioners could be dispossessed, if at all, only in pursuance of a decree of a Civil Court obtained in proceedings properly initiated,” the court added.

சென்னை: சென்னை உயர் நீதிமன்ற வழக்கறிஞர்கள் நாளை, ஆர்ப்பாட்டம்

12ஜூன்
2014 
00:05

சென்னை: சென்னை உயர் நீதிமன்ற வழக்கறிஞர்கள் சங்க பொதுக்குழு கூட்டம் நடந்தது. 

இதில், விடுமுறை இல்லாமல், 365 நாட்களும் நீதிமன்றங்கள் இயங்க வேண்டும் என்ற, தலைமை நீதிபதியின் திட்டத்தால், வக்கீல்கள் தரப்பில் எதிர்கொள்ளும் பிரச்னைகளை விளக்கி, மனு அனுப்ப வேண்டும். 

வழக்குகளின் தேக்கத்தைக் குறைக்கவும், விடுமுறை இன்றி நீதிமன்றங்கள் இயங்கும் திட்டத்தை எதிர்த்து நாளை, ஆர்ப்பாட்டம் நடத்தப்படும். 

இவ்வாறு, தீர்மானங்கள் நிறைவேற்றப்பட்டன.