Supreme Court allows CBI to grill Maran for six days

Denying CBI custodial interrogation of former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran in the illegal telephone exchange case, the Supreme Court on Friday directed him to appear before the CBI for questioning regularly for six days between November 30 and December 5 without fail.

Mr. Maran will answer questions from the CBI between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. during this period.

“We will not give you custodial interrogation,” a bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and V. Gopala Gowda told the CBI represented by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.

But the court indicated that it is keen to know the truth on the allegations against Mr. Maran. For this purpose, the bench delivered a short order directing Mr. Maran to appear regularly before the CBI probe officer and “answer all questions relevant issued by the investigating officer”.

Justice Thakur insisted that CBI should prepare a “proper” questionnaire for the former minister and the accused BSNL officials to get to the bottom of the case.

The court said questions should be asked about who gave the order for the installation of the high-speed lines, why such an order was given, if at all, etc.

This was after Mr. Rohatgi produced documents purportedly showing that the lines were installed on the “verbal orders” of Mr. Maran. But senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and advocate Sumesh Dhawan, for Mr. Maran, countered that they were not shown any such records to defend their case.

The bench here stepped in again to say that there should be a proper questionnaire to take the case further.

“Please co-operate,” Justice Thakur told Mr. Maran’s side.

The court told the CBI that in case of any “suppression” it would consider action for custodial interrogation.