Marans, 5 others cleared by court in illegal telephone exchange case

A special court for CBI cases discharged former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother Kalanidhi Maran, along with five others, from the decade-old illegal telephone exchange case on Wednesday. "There is no prima facie material against you," CBI special judge Natarajan said. Others discharged include former BSNL general manager K Brahmanathan, former deputy general manager M P Velusamy, Dayanidhi's private secretary Gauthaman, and Sun TV officials.A CBI spokesperson said, "We are yet to receive a copy of the judgment. We will examine it and seek appropriate legal remedy in the matter."RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, who exposed the illegal telephone exchange, tweeted that the decision shamed the CBI and fraud on criminal jurisprudence. "The honest CBI officer who found out the crime was almost sacked for it. It is an open and shut case," he tweeted.The CBI had alleged that a number of high-end telecommunication facilities were installed at Dayanidhi's residence in Chennai (when he was the Telecom Minister), illegally under the service category for which bills were not raised for 2004-07. This caused a financial loss to the exchequer to the tune of Rs 1.78 crore.