New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday extended the stay on a Madras High Court order cancelling the bail of former Telecom Minister and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran in the alleged telephone exchange case.
A bench of justices T S Thakur and C Nagappan also granted two weeks to Maran to file a rejoinder to CBI's reply. The apex court on August 12 had sought CBI's response on Maran's plea challenging the High Court order and questioned its decision to arrest him in a case registered in 2013. Maran had moved the apex court challenging the Madras High Court's decision to cancel his bail and asking him to surrender in a case.
The High Court had on August 10 cancelled Maran's interim anticipatory bail and directed him to surrender before CBI in three days, holding that “prima facie” Maran had “misused” his office by obtaining phone connections illegally and the charges against him were backed by material. It had also rejected Maran's contention that CBI was seeking cancellation of his interim bail only to humiliate him.
CBI has registered an FIR against Maran and others alleging that over 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.
