CHENNAI: The CBI team investigating the illegal telephone exchange scam against former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran has conducted enquiries with a few government authorities in the city as to whether necessary permission was obtained to lay the cables along the public roads connecting the ‘secret exchange’ with Sun TV Network.
According to a 2007 CBI report which unearthed the scam, 323 telephone connections were illegally given to the Boat Club residence of Dayanidhi Maran and were used to upload signals of the Sun TV Network run by his brother Kalanidhi Maran. The optic fibre cables were laid underground along 4 kilometres of public road to draw the secret high-speed telephone lines.
Since permission of the highways and the corporation is a must to lay the underground cables, the investigators had also enquired with these government agencies on whether they were aware of the cables laid along the public road. An official in one of agencies confirmed that the CBI sleuths approached them. “The officers have requested not to reveal any details about the information obtained from us as it will adversely affect the investigations,” said the official.
The illegal exchange was believed to have been set up between 2004 and 2007 when Dayanidhi Maran was the Union Telecom Minister. The official also pointed out that the DMK was also in power since May 2006 in the state suggesting that the officials could have been coerced to not question the laying of the cables.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the team of CBI officers has left the city. The temporary camp office of the team at the BSNL office in Giri Road in T Nagar was found locked on Tuesday and airport sources too confirmed that two officers left Chennai on Monday night.
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