The CBI faced yet another setback in cases against former UPA ministers when a special CBI court in Chennai on Wednesday discharged former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi Maran and five others in the illegal telephone exchange case.

It was the second major legal victory for DMK leaders. A few months ago, Kanimozhi ~ party’s Rajya Sabha member and daughter of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi ~ and former Telecom Minister A Raja were acquitted by a court in the 2G spectrum case.

In the illegal telephone exchange case, along with Maran brothers, former Minister’s then personal secretary V Gowthaman; former chief general managers of BSNL, Chennai circle K Brahmanathan; former deputy general manager of BSNL M Velusamy; Sun TV network’s vice-president (technical) S Kannan; and technician K S Ravi, the co accused are also discharged of the charges.

CBI special judge Natarajan in his verdict said that there is no prima facie material against the accused and hence they are discharged from case. The seven accused had filed a discharge petition which the court allowed on the grounds of lack of prima facie material against them.

The CBI, which alleged a loss of `1.78 crore to the exchequer, had invoked provisions under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI had on 9 December 2016, filed a chargesheet against Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi among others, for allegedly using 764 high-speed data lines at the former’s residence which were used by Sun TV channel. The high-end telecommunication facilities were alleged to be illegally under the service category for which bills were not raised for 2004-07.

The CBI, which is investigated the functioning of an illegal BSNL telephone exchange from the Chennai residence of Dayanidhi Maran during his tenure as Union Minister of Communication and Information Technology (MoC&IT) from 2004 to 2007, filed a charge sheet in the Court of the Principal Special Judge for CBI cases under IPC and section 13(2) r/w 13(1) (c) and (1) (d) of PC Act, 1988.

The CBI after its investigation, in its charge sheet accused that about 764 telephone numbers were allegedly provided to then Minister of Communication & IT, Mr Maran by BSNL, Chennai Telephones and MTNL, New Delhi and no bills were allegedly raised for all these facilities and thereby caused a loss of about Rs. 1,78,71,393 rupees to the exchequer.

CBI had registered a case on July 23, 2013 on the allegations of installing a number of high end telecommunication facilities at the residence of Maran at Chennai, illegally under service category and did not raise bills for the same during the period from 2004 to 2007 and thereby caused huge loss to the government exchequer. The loss to the Exchequer is estimated to be Rs.1,20, 87,769 to the BSNL, which did not include the call charges.