Maran used 770 BSNL lines, caused Rs 1.8-crore loss

CBI Special Task Force officials, who questioned Maran for nearly seven hours at its headquarters, have called him again on Thursday morning, agency sources said on Wednesday.

The SMS sent seeking Maran’s reaction remained unanswered and he did not take any calls.

Sources said Maran had already been questioned in connection with the case in January and October <g data-gr-id="45">2014,</g> while his brother Kalanithi was examined once in September last year.

The investigation has revealed that a loss of over Rs 1.8 crore was caused to the exchequer by use of such large number of high capacity ISDN lines at Maran’s Boat House Road residence in Chennai.

CBI has alleged that the 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.

It was alleged that the residence was turned into a “virtual telephone exchange” to facilitate speedy transmission of programmes by Sun TV owned by Maran’s brother Kalanithi, an action termed by Home Ministry as threat to national security.

The lines were also allocated to Maran’s Gopalapuram residence in Chennai and another one in Delhi, they said.

Sources said the final loss figure has not been calculated yet as the probe is still underway.

In its FIR, CBI had mentioned over 320 lines but during the probe it has surfaced that the over 770 BSNL lines were installed at his three residences.

48-year-old Maran refused to speak to media after questioning.

Maran was 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.

In the FIR, CBI had 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.

The probe had started in 2011, nearly four years after getting complaints that a ‘virtual’ telephone exchange was allegedly set up at 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 <g data-gr-id="54">charged</g> 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.