CBI seeks cancellation of Dayanidhi Maran's interim pre-arrest bail

The CBI on Thursday filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking cancellation of the interim anticipatory bail granted to former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in the alleged illegal telephone exchange case.

On June 30, the high court had granted anticipatory bail for six weeks subject to the condition that Maran appears before CBI on July 1 and cooperate with the agency in the investigation in the case.

Justice R Subbiah had granted the relief on a petition by Maran apprehending arrest. In the petition, CBI said Maran, the prime accused in the case, was not cooperating with the investigation.

The petition is likely to come up for hearing on Monday. 48-year old Maran was questioned by CBI for a total of 22 hours over three days from July 1 at its headquarters in New Delhi.

CBI had registered a case naming Maran, the then Chief General Manager (CGM), BSNL, K Bramhanathan and then CGM of Chennai Telephones MP Veluswami for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy and causing a huge financial loss to the government exchequer.

It has alleged that more than 300 high-speed telephone lines were provided at Maran's residence and extended to his brother Kalanithi Maran's SUN TV channel to enable its uplinking when he was the Telecom Minister from 2004-07.