SC acts on plea against Maran
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the CBI and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on a plea seeking initiation of inquiry against DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran for allegedly misusing public office when he was telecom minister by setting up an exchange in his Chennai house and routing 323 lines to the offices of his family-owned Sun TV Network.
A bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam sought responses of the CBI and BSNL on the plea against Maran alleging that despite adverse findings in the preliminary inquiry, neither the CBI nor the Centre has taken any step to pursue the matter.
The petitioner, journalist and RSS ideologue Swaminathan Gurumurthy, has alleged that the CBI has “buried” the case under political pressure despite its inquiry revealing a loss of Rs 440 crore to the exchequer in the case.
“The fraudulent arrangement was executed to facilitate and satisfy the data transfer requirements of Sun TV Network and has caused, on the estimates provided by the CBI in its preliminary enquiry a whopping loss of Rs 440 crores to BSNL and national exchequer,” Gurumurthy’s plea said.
He also said that he had sent letters to the CBI director with evidence in his possession but no step was taken in the case. He also alleged that the agency had recommended action in the case to telecom secretary in 2007 but the department had not given its nod.
“Though as a minister he was entitled to only a couple of telephone lines for his official use and that too in Delhi where his official residence was, in January 2007 these 323 lines were smuggled from his residence to the premises of Sun TV Network through separate and exclusive cables laid down by BSNL, at its own cost,” the petition alleged.
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