Maran brothers, others discharged in illegal telephone exchange case

Chennai, March 14 A special CBI court on Wednesday discharged DMK leader and former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother and Sun TV group head Kalanithi Maran and five others in the alleged illegal telephone exchange case.

The seven had filed a discharge petition which the court allowed on the grounds of lack of prima facie material against them.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had alleged a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the government due to the installation of alleged an illegal telephone exchange at Dayanidhi Maran's house which was used for Sun TV operations.

The others who were discharged were BSNL's former Chief General Manager K.Brahmanathan and former Deputy General Manager M.Velusamy, the former minister's Personal Secretary V. Gowthaman, and Sun TV network employees S.Kannan and K.S. Ravi.

This is the second major legal victory for a DMK leader.

Couple of months ago, the party's Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi and former Telecom Minister A. Raja were acquitted by a court in the 2G spectrum case.