CHENNAI: Is it possible for an individual to use 323 telephone connections? Yes, says former Union Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
The DMK leader, who is facing charges of abusing his official position, submitted before the Madras High Court on Wednesday that all the 323 phone connections that were allegedly used to transmit programmes of Sun TV were actually meant for his personal use.
Maran, who is the prime accused in the multi-crore illegal telephone exchange scandal, was defending against a plea moved by the CBI, which alleged that he has been deliberately suppressing information to save himself and others, including his elder brother Kalanithi Maran, and sought to cancel his anticipatory bail so that he could be taken into custody for interrogation.
Appearing for Maran during the hearing on Wednesday, senior counsel P S Raman refuted the allegations. “Dayanidhi Maran appeared before the investigating officer for inquiry on all the three days as summoned. He further submitted the documents sought for by the officer.”
CBI’s plea that he is not cooperating is not true. “They are alleging so, as they did not get the answers they wanted,” Raman said.
Pleading that Maran is always ready to cooperate with the investigation, Raman added, “We are not pleading for acquittal of Maran from the case; we are just asking for his liberty and protection from being arrested.” Referring to the earlier order passed by the court while granting Maran anticipatory bail, senior counsel A R L Sundaresan added that the court had then said that the CBI can approach it for cancellation of bail only if he fails to cooperate. “This particular ground has not been made by them while approaching for cancellation of bail,” he contended.
Pointing out the vacuum in law about the entitlement of a Union minister with regard to free telephone connections, Sundaresan said, “When there is no law on the issue, no one can be prosecuted.” Countering the arguments, Additional Solicitor General G Rajagopal, who appeared for CBI, said, “The entire situation would have been different if an ordinary officer of BSNL had done the crime. The investigation moved in a slow pace, as the former minister enjoyed political backing till 2013. Now the case has reached the final stage and his custody is required to get crucial information.”
Denying the averment that Maran was entitled to free telephone connections as a minister, Rajagopal said, “The phone lines were bought under service category, which was only available to employees of BSNL, not for ministers. Moreover, if he was entitled for such a benefit, why was the connections bought under the name of the then Chief General Manager of BSNL?” “Usually bills raised for the connections provided to ministers will be paid by the respective department. But in this case, bills were not raised at all,” he added.
Wondering how a minister could use so many telephone lines, Rajagopal said, “Maran was using over 700 lines under service category without making any payments for more than two years. We need his custody to ascertain who was the actual beneficiary of those telephone lines,” he added.
To substantiate the agency’s allegation that Maran is providing evasive and inconsistent answers, the additional solicitor general said, “Earlier during an interrogation Maran said that he holds share in Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV), a company owned by Sun Group. But in the recent enquiry, he said that no such legal entity even existed.”
Asserting that the plea for Maran’s custody is sincere and serious, Rajagopal said, “We do not act like a state agency to extract information by putting the accused in jail. We have duly conducting the investigation step by step. We are only asking for his custody since the investigation has reached its final stage.”
Recording the arguments that lasted over two hours, Justice S Vaidyanathan posted the matter to Monday for pronouncing order.