CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday asked the former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran to respond to a CBI’s petition seeking to quash the anticipatory bail granted to him earlier.
The case pertains to an illegal telephone exchange at Maran’s residence when he was Union telecom minister. The CBI has estimated loss of Rs 1,78,71,391 to the Exchequer.
Noted columnist S Gurumurthy made the scam public through his articles, based on a CBI report on which no action was being taken for several years.
Justice R Subbiah passed the directive when the petition moved by CBI came up for hearing on Monday. He further posted the matter to August 4 for filing counter affidavit by Maran
On July 16, the central agency accused Dayanidhi Maran of deliberately suppressing information in the multi-crore illegal BSNL Telephone Exchange scandal to save himself and others. It wanted the High Court to cancel his anticipatory bail so that he could be taken into custody for questioning.
The allegation against Dayanidhi Maran is that as a Member of Parliament, he was entitled to only three telephone connections (one for his constituency, one for the Delhi residence and one broadband connection) and two mobile connections, subject to an annual total of 1,50,000 calls.
Whereas, Maran in collusion with the then BSNL Chennai Telephones Chief General Manager K Brahmadathan, illegally obtained 364 actual telephone numbers/lines of high end connections at his Gopalapuram residence in Chennai under the service category. No bills were raised and no payments were made to BSNL for these connections.
In December 2006 when Maran shifted his residence to Boat Club Road, a proposal to shift the existing facilities to the new bungalow was mooted in collusion with the new BSNL CGM M P Velusamy.
While shifting, Maran illegally obtained another 363 high end connections under the service category. The CBI has estimated a loss of Rs 1,78,71,391.