Madras High Court issues notice to Maran brothers in 'illegal' telephone exchange

When the petition by CBI came up, Justice G Jaichandran directed issuance of notice to all those involved in the case, returnable by June 20.

A special CBI court had in March last discharged Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi and others accused in the case.

Special judge S Natarajan had allowed the petitions filed by the Maran brothers and others seeking their discharge, holding that there was no prima facie case against them.

The CBI had alleged that an illegal private telephone exchange was set up at the Chennai residence of Dayanidhi Maran during 2004-06 when he was the Telecom Minister and it was used for the business transactions involving the Sun Network owned by his brother Kalanithi

The central agency had alleged that Dayanidhi Maran had caused a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer.

Other accused who have been discharged are former BSNL general manager K Brahmanathan, former deputy general manager MP Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran's private secretary Gauthaman and some Sun TV officials.