HC dismisses plea of 3 accused in telephone exchange case

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Tuesday dismissed a plea moved by three accused in the decade-old illegal telephone exchange case seeking direction to the CBI trial court to hear all the suspects on framing of charges and look into the availability of materials-on-record against each accused.
At the time of framing charges, the trial court only needed to put the materials to the accused persons and there was no requirement to hear their counsel on the sufficiency of the materials, Justice N Anand Venkatesh held and dismissed the plea.
The plea was moved by S Kannan, Vedagiri Gowthaman, and KS Ravi. Former union minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother Kalanithi Maran are also accused in the case.
The issue pertains to an order passed by the XIV Additional Judge for CBI cases fixing January 30 for framing charges and directing the appearance of all the accused on the day.
Relying on a specific clarification given by the Supreme Court in connection with the case, the petitioners contended that the trial court cannot proceed to frame charges based on assumptions. The trial court had to look at material already collected by the prosecution and put questions to each of the accused before framing charges, the plea argued.