File Photo: Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran
The Madras High Court has adjourned a petition filed by CBI seeking the cancellation of the interim anticipatory bail granted to former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran till Wednesday. The petition had been filed with regard to the illegal telephone exchange case.
When the petition came up before Justice S Vaidianathan, Mr Maran's senior counsel PS Raman submitted that the anticipatory bail petition filed by Mr Maran would come up for further hearing on Monday and the cancellation bail plea may also be heard along with it.
The judge asked the counsel to file a reply on the petition filed by CBI and said he would hear it tomorrow itself.
In the petition, CBI said Mr Maran, the prime accused in the case, was not cooperating with the investigation.
On June 30, the High Court had granted anticipatory bail for six weeks subject to the condition that Mr Maran appears before the 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 Mr Maran apprehending arrest.
Mr Maran was questioned by CBI for a total of 22 hours spread over three days from July 1 at its headquarters in New Delhi.
CBI had registered a case naming Mr Maran, the then Chief General Manager (CGM), BSNL, K Bramhanathan and the 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 Mr 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.