CBI registers case against Maran for ‘illegal’ phone lines

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against the former Telecom Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, and some BSNL officials for allegedly installing at his Chennai residence over 300 high-speed telephone lines that were extended to his brother’s television channel.

According to the CBI, the FIR was registered after the agency, while conducting a preliminary enquiry, found that there was prima facie evidence to proceed against Mr. Maran and the BSNL officials, including former Chief General Manager K. Bramhanathan and MP Veluswami.

The agency, which had instituted the enquiry in 2011, alleged that 323 phone lines were in the name of the BSNL General Manager and they connected Mr. Maran’s Boat House residence with the Sun TV office through a dedicated underground cable link. “These lines were costly ISDN, capable of carrying huge data and facilitated faster transmission of TV news and programmes across the world,” said an officer.

The CBI had, in its report to the Telecom Secretary around six years ago, said these lines were for commercial use for videoconferencing or transmission of huge volumes of digital data and for that a heavy fee was usually charged.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/3315-cbi-registers-case-against-maran-for-%E2%80%98illegal%E2%80%99-phone-lines.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/legal-news/item/3315-cbi-registers-case-against-maran-for-%E2%80%98illegal%E2%80%99-phone-lines.html