On day 2, CBI grills ex-min Maran for nearly seven hours

Former Indian Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran was questioned for the second consecutive day on Thursday in connection with the alleged use of over 770 high-capacity BSNL data lines at his three residences in Chennai and Delhi to facilitate speedy transmission of programmes by a Sun TV firm owned by his brother.

After Maran's questioning for over seven hours again on Thursday, he was asked to appear before CBI's Special Task Force officials again tomorrow, official sources said.

The sources said that the former Union Minister, who was questioned in a room opposite to 'Electronic Niketan' where he used to sit as a Minister during his tenure as Telecom Minister from 2004-07, was confronted with the documents collected by the agency in this case.

The 48-year-old Minister was questioned by CBI for nearly seven hours on Wednesday. He will be confronted with more documents tomorrow as well, the sources said.

On Thursday, Maran told reporters that he was willing to cooperate with CBI. "This has given me an opportunity to give them (CBI) evidences collected through RTI from BSNL and MTNL which clearly states that according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), it's only one connection and not 300 connections as claimed earlier. "I hope something good comes out of this," Maran said.