Illegal telephone exchange scam: Maran's anticipatory bail cancelled

Chennai, Aug 10: In a major set back which could pave the way for his arrest the Madras High Court today cancelled the anticipatory bail it had granted to former union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran.

The court directed Maran to surrender before the CBI in three days. Maran's legal team may move the Supreme Court against this order.

The CBI had moved the Madras High Court seeking cancellation of Maran's anticipatory bail on the ground that he was not cooperating with the investigation into the illegal telephone exchange scam.

CBI can arrest Maran:

With the high court cancelling the anticipatory bail, the CBI would now be able to arrest Maran. ‎ It has been found during the investigation that Maran had not only destroyed evidence but also came up with a unique plan to run the BSNL lines from his home.

The Central Bureau of Investigation which questioned Maran for nearly 16 hours has found that he had concealed the truth. He had told the CBI that he ran just one BSNL line from his Boat Road residence. However investigations revealed that he had instructed the BSNL in Chennai to install a primary rate interface line at his Boat House residence.

This line could send and also receive nearly 30 calls at one time. When Maran was asked about this he had told the investigators that he has installed just one line under the service category and hence had done no wrong.

However, the CBI found that while the Maran had claimed that this line was installed under the service category, in reality the same was used for commercial purposes which in turn helped Sun TV transmit data much faster.

It was found that he had availed these services by not paying any rent or installation charges which in turn led to a loss of Rs 1.8 crore to the exchequer of the government.

The CBI has also collected documentary evidence which suggests that Maran had in fact signed on documents asking the BSNL to install these lines. The CBI during his interrogation of Maran found him to be evasive.

They also found that he had allegedly destroyed evidence at his residence as the probe agency reached up to him. He was asked several times about the misuse of power and position but Maran replied that he had done no wrong.

However, the CBI says that the evidence that they have managed to gather have a different story to tell.

OneIndia News