Marans to be Questioned on Monday

CHENNAI: Former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his businessman brother Kalanidhi Maran, both of whom are the prime accused in the secret telephone exchange case, are likely to be interrogated by the CBI on Monday. However, the brothers, millionaire owners of the Sun Group, are said to be currently in Brazil to watch the football world cup.

A CBI team that was camping in Chennai for the past one week had already finished interrogating a few former senior executives of the Sun TV network and also collected material evidence about the secret telephone exchange set up in Dayanidhi’s house on Boat Club road.

It is alleged that the exchange was set up to upload signals of channels of the Sun TV network, a multi-lingual TV empire owned by Kalanidhi Maran. A secret CBI report in 2007 which unearthed the scam had accused Dayanidhi Maran, who was the union telecom minister between 2004-2007, of using his influence and colluding with senior officers of the state-run BSNL to draw 323 high speed lines to his residence.

The interrogation is most likely to be in a questionnaire format and both the accused will be confronted with the evidence that has already been gathered from those interrogated earlier.

It is learnt that Hansraj Saxena, a senior executive in Sun TV when the scam took place, had already confessed that the BSNL lines were used to upload signals of the TV channels. The CBI had also conducted inquires with Sharad Kumar, a former senior Sun TV executive. With the DMK losing its clout at the Centre and Dayanidhi Maran himself losing in the elections, the investigations have gained momentum.

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