CBI Grilled Maran Last Month’

IE  Yatish YadavJune 17, 2014

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the ‘illegal telephone exchange’ case against former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had questioned him last month.

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the ‘illegal telephone exchange’ case against former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had questioned him last month.

A CBI official confirmed to the Express that Maran was examined by investigators looking into the alleged allocation of over 300 BSNL high-speed phone lines given to Maran and purportedly used by a company which was owned by his family. It was alleged that high speed phone lines, which were allotted to Maran’s residence, were routed to the family-owned Sun TV through underground cables. CBI officials while refusing to divulge details about Maran examination and said he might be questioned again.

The agency had alleged that high speed lines were used in connivance with the BSNL for transmission huge, loss the government exchequer. Subsequently, two BSNL officials were booked by the CBI and it had examined two former executive of SUN network Sharad Kumar and Hansraj Saxena on June 7.

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.