The Madras High Court on Wednesday set aside an order by a lower court that had discharged the Maran brothers in the illegal BSNL telephone exchange case, ANI reported. The court ordered that charges be framed against them within 12 weeks.
In March, the trial court had said the prosecutors failed to prove their case against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran, and five other accused. Three months later, the Central Bureau of Investigation moved the High Court challenging the order. Kalanithi Maran is the owner of Sun TV.
In 2013, the CBI had accused Dayanidhi Maran of abusing his position as a Union minister and causing a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the public exchequer. The agency filed a chargesheet in the case on December 9, 2016.
Dayanidhi Maran was the Union information technology minister between 2004 and 2007. He allegedly installed at least 364 high-end telecommunication facilities at one of his residences. Of those, Sun TV had used 323 telephone facilities between 2004 and 2007 to uplink the channel, the CBI claimed.
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