Probe against Dayanidhi Maran is a must: Supreme Court
Dayanidhi Maran, Telecom minister during the UPA regime is in deep trouble, with the Supreme Court permitting the CBI to grill him “for six days, six hours daily”, starting from November 30 in connection with an “illegal” telephone exchange at his official residence.
“Why does a minister need a telephone exchange with 700 high speed lines at his official residence?” Justice TS Thakur asked, seeing prima-facie merit in CBI’s argument that Maran requires to be interrogated to find out if he illegally diverted these lines that are capable of transferring large amounts of data for the functioning of his family-run private channel Sun TV.
The bench however rejected the CBI plea for his custodial interrogation. Appearing for CBI, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had contended that it was essential to prove the conspiracy involving him, Sun TV and BSNL.
Extending the interim relief of protection against arrest of Maran, the bench asked him to fully cooperate with the CBI and answer all questions to their satisfaction. The court gave the CBI to re-approach the court in the event of Maran ‘trying to suppress facts.’
“Maran will have to remain present at the CBI office from 11 am to 5 pm starting from November 30 to December 5,” it said. “However, we will not grant him custodial interrogation at the moment,” the bench told CBI.
The court said questions should be asked about who gave the order for the installation of the high-speed lines; why such an order was given, if at all, etc. This was after Rohatgi produced documents purportedly showing that the lines were installed on the “verbal orders” of Maran. But senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and advocate Sumesh Dhawan, for Maran, countered that they were not shown any such records to defend their case.
The bench stepped in again to say that there should be a proper questionnaire to take the case further. “Please co-operate,” Justice Thakur told Maran’s lawyers.
While Maran challenged cancellation of his anticipatory bail by the Madras High Court, CBI has moved court seeking his custodial interrogation on the ground that he was not cooperating with the probe.
According to CBI, Maran, as a minister entered into a criminal conspiracy with BSNL officials and by abusing their official position, caused huge financial loss of Rs 1.78 crore. Court while cancelling his anticipatory bail, held that “prima facie” Maran had “misused” his office by obtaining telephone connections “illegally” and that the allegations against him were backed by evidence.
An FIR was registered against Maran alleging that more than 300 high-speed telephone lines were provided at his residence and extended to his brother Kalanithi Maran’s SUN TV channel to enable its uplinking when Dayanidhi Maran was Telecom Minister from 2004 to 2007.
Objecting to custodial interrogation, the bench had earlier asked CBI if political vendetta was behind the sudden urge for Maran’s arrest.
“Are you attempting to fix him? What is the need for arresting a man Rs 1 crore of pending phone bill? The FIR was filed in 2013, why didn’t you arrest him then? Why did you wait for three full years?” Is it a matter of prestige for you to arrest him? Of course, nobody shall get away after causing loss to the public exchequer…but is custodial interrogation required in such cases? We do not feel so”, Justice Thakur had said.
Read full article: NDTV
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