New Delhi : Former Telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran was “evasive” during his questioning by CBI in a case of alleged abuse of his office in getting installed high capacity BSNL lines at his residences to facilitate speedy transmission of programmes to a TV firm owned by his brother and could be called again. Highly-placed CBI sources claimed the 48-year-old Maran, who held Telecom and IT portfolio in UPA-I from 2004 to 2007, was “evasive on many points” during his 22-hour questioning over three days beginning last Wednesday.
The sources said his replies to other points were being verified and he may be called again for questioning after the assessment has been completed. Efforts to reach Maran for comments failed as he neither answered telephone calls nor replied to text messages. Maran had told on Thursday outside the CBI headquarters that he had submitted documents collected through RTI from MTNL and BSNL which, he claimed, showed he had not violated any norms or guidelines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
The CBI had registered a case naming Maran, the then Chief General Manager (CGM), BSNL, K Bramhanathan and then CGM of Chennai Telephones M P Veluswami for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy and causing a huge financial loss to the government exchequer.
