Thursday, January 31, 2019

Court frames charges against Maran brothers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:31.01.2019

Wednesday was a long day for former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother Kalanithi Maran, who spent most of it at the special court for CBI cases in the Madras high court premises in connection with the decade-old illegal telephone exchange case. At the end of the day, the court framed charges against the brothers and five other accused, which included criminal conspiracy and offences under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

At around 4 pm, the XIV additional judge for CBI cases R Vasanthi said offences under section 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) read with 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467, 471and 477 of IPC and sections13(2) read with13 (1)(c) and 13(1)(d) of the PC Act are framed against A1– Dayanidhi Maran.

The case was list for hearing on Wednesday at10.30 am as the first item in the day’s list. When the court commenced proceeding, counsel for the accused produced a copy of the high court order and submitted that the trial court should hear the submissions of all seven accused individually and that charges should not be framed without hearing them.

When the judge asked whether all the accused are present, counsel said that Maran brothers were a bit late and would reach the court anytime.

When the brothers entered the court hall, the judge said she was adjourning the hearing to noon so that she could ‘apply her mind’ and go through the high court order.

When the case was taken up at noon, Dayanidhi appeared in person and submittedthattheentire casewas politically motivated, and that the CBI had no material evidence to prove he had abused his powers as minister.

Kalanithi, who also presented his submissions in person, said that in the 6000-page chargesheet there was not a single mention of his name and that he was dragged into the case only because he was Dayanidhi’s brother. “I am being made a scapegoat in the case. The intention is to destroy my TV channel,” he said.

After hearing all the seven accused, the judge once again adjourned the hearing to 3 pm to ‘apply her mind’ on the submissions made.

At 3 pm, she read out the charges framed against all the accused and asked for their reply. As the accused unanimously pleaded not guilty and‘opted for trial’, the court posted the case to February 19 for commencement of trial. According to the CBI, Dayanidhi as union minister misused his office and installed a private telephone exchange at his residence in Chennai and utilised the facility for business transactions of Sun TV causing a loss of 1.78 crore to the exchequer.



Kalanithi Maran (L) and Dayanidhi Maran leaving the CBI court on Wednesday

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