SC restricts CBI from arresting Dayanidhi Maran in illegal telephone exchange case

New Delhi, Aug 12: The Supreme Court of India has restrained the CBI from arresting former Union Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in connection with the illegal telephone exchange case.

A Bench of the Supreme Court restrained the CBI from arresting Maran until September 14 while posting the matter for further hearing.

The Supreme Court was moved after the Madras High Court had cancelled the anticipatory bail granted to Dayanidhi Maran.

The CBI had moved the Madras High Court seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail on the ground that Maran had not cooperated with the investigations.

The Madras High Court had ordered Maran to surrender before the CBI within three days.

No danger of me fleeing:

Maran in his petition had alleged that the cancellation of anticipatory bail by the CBI was sought only with an intention of humiliating him.

Maran had approached the Supreme Court yesterday, but a Bench headed by Justice T S Thakur had ordered that the matter be placed before an appropriate bench on August 12.

Maran in his petition argues that the legal circumstances were not taken into account when the Madras High Court had cancelled his bail.

There is no danger of me leaving the country and fleeing or even influencing the witnesses in the case and hence the cancellation of anticipatory bail is wrong, he argued.

The CBI's contention:

The CBI had contended that there was enough material to show Maran's involvement in the illegal telephone exchange scam.

He was told to cooperate with the investigations but failed to do so, the CBI argued while also adding that relevant documents as sought were not handed over by Maran.

The CBI's contention is that Maran during his tenure as telecom minister had entered into a criminal conspiracy with some officials of the BSNL and installed over 300 telephone connections in his home which helped transmit data to his Sun TV network in high speed.

This caused a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer, the CBI also contended.

OneIndia News