Dayanidhi Maran breaks silence, says allegations are false

New Delhi, Jun 3: Breaking his silence on all the allegations of misusing his position as the Union Telecom Minister, DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran has insisted that he is innocent. His statement comes after recent media reports claimed that he misused his position to get at least 323 BSNL fixed line connections to his residence in Chennai.

Maran, a grand nephew of DMK leader and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, refuted all the allegations against him and said, "There was a CBI enquiry on me that I have misused official position to get 300 phone lines. I wrote to the chief general manager that please explain to me how many lines are present in my residence. Let me quote from here - "Only one BSNL telephone was provided when you were a minister and MP at your residence."

He also added, "I have not benefitted anyone. I have not done anything wrong."

Media reports have claimed some interesting facts about the 323 BSNL fixed lines that he allegedly managed to procure for his residence and company. According to the report published, the daylight prank was brought to light by the CBI who apparently unearthed the fraud way back in Sept 9, 2007 and intimated the matter to the Telecom Secretary. The telephone lines were apparently not under Maran"s name but in the name of Chief General Manager BSNL Chennai. The lines were used for the purpose of Maran"s family business and have caused huge losses to BSNL.

Maran in other words ran a virtual telephone exchange at his home in Chennai. How else could you explain 323 telephone lines at his home in Chennai, which is apparently not his work base as Union Minister of Textiles and Minister of Communications and IT prior to that?

With Raja and Kanimozhi, already behind the bars for their alleged involvements in the 2G spectrum allocation scandal, it now seems that probably Maran's time has come to face the CBI music. Irrespective of how many clarifications, he may issue, the fact remains that he has to be legally cleared to prove his innocence and whether he can do that is an entirely different thing all together.

OneIndia News