The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal filed by former Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran against a Madras High Court order directing charges to be framed against him and his brother Kalanithi Maran in the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited telephone exchange case.
On July 25, the High Court set aside an order by a lower court that had discharged them in the case and ordered that charges be framed against them within 12 weeks.
“The allegation is that you have used the telephones for the business interest of your brother,” Justice Ranjan Gogoi told Dayanidhi Maran, according to Live Law. “Go and face the trial.”
In March, the trial court said the prosecutors had 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 had allegedly installed at least 364 high-end telecommunication facilities at one of his residences. Of those, Sun TV had used 323 facilities between 2004 and 2007 to uplink the channel, the CBI claimed.
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