File Photo: Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran
Dayanidhi Maran, who was interrogated in Delhi for the second consecutive day said that during his time as Telecom Minister, he installed one phone line - and not hundreds, as alleged - at his residence in Chennai. He said he has used the Right to Information Act to collect this "evidence" and that he shared it today with investigators.
Mr Maran, 48, has been accused by the CBI, the country's premier investigating agency, of using over 700 high-capacity data lines at his homes in Chennai and Delhi while he was Telecom Minister. In 2007, he was replaced by A Raja of his party, who is being tried for corruption and accepting kickbacks in exchange for granting out-of-turn mobile network licenses.
Mr Maran says that he told the CBI today that Right to Information applications have helped him collect "evidence which clearly shows there was only one connection and not 300 connections as claimed earlier" at his house in Chennai.
The CBI says that during his stint as Telecom Minister, Mr Maran created an illicit underground network of cables that can transmit huge amounts of data very quickly and provided them at no cost to Sun TV, a broadcaster group owned by his brother and media mogul Kalanithi Maran.
The charges against him have been cited recently by the Home Ministry as one of the reasons for denying a security clearance to Sun TV, which endangers its status as a radio and television broadcaster.
Mr Maran has been charged with corruption in another case linked to his term as Telecom Minister - he has been accused of refusing crucial clearances to Aircel, a telecom, till the owner agreed to sell the firm to a Malaysia-based entrepreneur who allegedly made a large investment in the Sun group as a kickback.