A highly respected and sought after corporate advisor S. Gurumurthy on Thursday said that the case of former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran in connection with the alleged allotment of more than 300 high-speed telephone lines to his residence in Chennai which were allegedly extended to his brother's TV channel, Sun TV is a long suppressed case.
"This is not an old issue. It was an issue which was blocked by the UPA Government. The CBI had reported in 2007 September, the investigation had been done in June-July. They said there are some 323 ISDN high-speed telephone lines that had been suppressed from the main system, and secretly installed without being noted in the record, in Maran's house, in a boat club in the name of the then Chief General Manager of BSNL, by an underground secret cable that was linked to the Sun TV," Gurumurthy said.
"In one month alone, in one line, 4.8 million calls have passed. Multiply it by six, in six months what would have been that number and in 323 lines how much it would have been. So, the CBI calculated some 484 crores would have been the loss to BSNL because these were kept as free lines, not billed, outside the system. So, please tell us what we should do. That is what the CBI is asking for the permission to persecute," he added.
Gurumurthy also said that Maran was having the support of the DMK.
"The whole matter was kept pending, because at that time, Maran was having support from the DMK, then reached on to the DMK, then he became a minister in the Government. So everything was shut down. It is not an old matter, it was a suppressed matter," he added.
Gurumurthy further said that Maran at that time had said that he had only two ISDN lines.
"These 300 lines were a package. 2437 1,500 to 2437 1,799 constituted one 300 line package. But, when Maran resigned as minister, he wanted two numbers out of these- 24371515 and 24371616. If he wanted those two lines, then they tried to find out where are those lines and they found these lines were not available," he said.
Gurumurthy said that according to the BSNL no information was found about these numbers.
"BSNL note says that no information was available about these numbers- 24371515 and 24371616. There was no information inside the billing computer it means it was outside it," he added.
"If the Government does not act, I will go to court. I am not interested in this or that Government. I am not going to asses this case I will only ensure that the CBI and the Government acts in this case," he added.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Wednesday night arrested three persons, including V. Gowthaman, the then Additional Private Secretary to Dayanidhi Maran in connection with alleged allotment of more than 300 high-speed telephone lines.
These high speed lines were allegedly allotted to the then Telecom Minister's residence which were further extended to his brother's TV channel, Sun TV.
Besides Gowthaman, CBI has also arrested the Chief Technical Officer S. Kannan and electrician L.S. Ravi of Sun TV network.
CBI had named Dayanidhi Maran and BSNL officials, including the then Chief General Manager, in the FIR in October 2013.
