The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday questioned former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran in connection with a case of alleged installation of over 300 high data capacity BSNL lines at his Chennai home to facilitate speedy transmission of programmes by a TV firm owned by his brother, an action termed by Home Ministry as threat to national security.
48-year-old Maran was questioned for nearly eight hours at the CBI headquarters by the agency’s Special Task Force which is handling the investigation, CBI sources said.
Mr Maran refused to take questions from waiting reporters and left. He had been called on Monday but did not turn up and approached the Madras High Court for interim anticipatory bail, which was granted to him on Tuesday.
Earlier, the Madras High Court had granted bail to three officials of Sun TV, who were arrested by CBI in connection with the case. They were V Gowthaman, former Additional Private Secretary of Maran, Chief Technical Officer S Kannan and electrician L S Ravi.
CBI has alleged that 323 lines were installed in the name of BSNL General Manager connecting the Boat House residence of Maran with the office of the family-run Sun TV through a dedicated underground cable during his tenure as Telecom Minister.
Sources said these were not ordinary telephone lines but costly ISDN, capable of carrying huge data, to facilitate faster transmission of TV news and programmes across the globe.
The probe had started in 2011, nearly four years after getting complaints that a ‘virtual’ telephone exchange was allegedly set up at Mr Maran’s residence.
CBI had in its report to the Telecom Secretary alleged these lines were for use by large commercial enterprises to meet special needs such as video conferencing or transmission of huge volume of digital data for which heavy fee is charged but Sun TV got it for free.
The illegal telephone exchange has been cited by the Home Ministry as one of the reasons for denying security clearance to the Sun TV network. The Ministry has said it posed a serious threat to national security.
Sun TV had approached the Home Ministry for security clearance and its case was supported by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. However, the Home Ministry declined to give clearance, saying the owners of the TV network were facing various cases for offences including money laundering.
An Economics graduate from prestigious Loyola College, Mr Maran was telecom minister from May 2004 to July 2007. He was Textile Minister during UPA II but had to quit after his alleged role in spectrum allocation scam case surfaced. He has already been chargesheeted in Aircel-Maxis case, an offshoot of 2G spectrum scam.
Sun TV is owned by Maran’s borther Kalanithi.
PTI