In interim relief for former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the DMK leader protection from arrest till September 14 in connection with illegal telephone exchange case.
The Supreme Court took this decision as it heard a petition filed by Maran.
Maran had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court order that cancelled his anticipatory bail, giving three days time to the DMK leader to surrender before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A three-judge bench headed by Justice T S Thakur sought CBI's response on Maran's plea and questioned its decision to arrest him in a case registered in 2013.
"What were you doing for the last two years. Why you have not arrested BSNL officials... Political vendetta should not come in the picture. Less said, the better," the bench said.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for CBI, then referred to the facts of the case to stress that it was a huge corruption case as the telephone lines installed at Maran's residence were used for commercial purposes by their electronic media conglomerate SUN TV.
"If these corrupt actions are not covered, then what for there is Prevention of Corruption Act," Rohatgi said.
Maran, in his tenure as telecom minister got telephone lines installed at his Chennai residence and they were exclusively used by the SUN TV network for commercial purposes and prima facie estimates shows that a loss of Rs 1.20 crore had been caused to the state exchequer, he said.
The bench, which initially posed tough questions to Maran's counsel, later turned the heat on CBI and questioned its insistence on custodial interrogation.
The bench then referred to the NRHM scam in Uttar Pradesh and said, "This is not something where you need to arrest a person. In UP, Rs 8,000 crore went down the drain. Not a single person has been arrested... Why do you want him in custody?"
Rohatgi sought some time to respond to certain queries raised by the bench which fixed the matter for hearing on September 14 and asked the probe agency to file its response within two weeks from Wednesday.
This comes a day after a three-judge bench comprising Justice T S Thakur, Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice R Banumathi allowed the plea for urgent hearing of the petition seeking anticipatory bail in the case.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi had appeared for Maran and sought urgent listing of his plea.
The Madras High Court had on Monday cancelled Maran's interim anticipatory bail in the controversial telephone exchange case and directed him to surrender before the CBI within three days while rejecting his charges of political vendetta.
The High Court held that "prima facie" Maran had "misused" his office by obtaining telephone connections "illegally" and allegations against him were backed by material.
CBI has registered an FIR against Maran and others alleging that more than 300 high-speed telephone lines were provided at his residence here and extended to his brother Kalanithi Maran's SUN TV channel to enable its uplinking when Dayanidhi Maran was Telecom Minister from 2004-07.
(With PTI Inputs)
Comments
0 comment