1. This Criminal Original Petitions are filed to call for the records in CC.No.12 of 2017 on the file of the XIV Additional Judge, CBI Cases, Chennai and to quash the charges framed as against the Petitioners/A7, A5, A6, A3 and A4, respectively, in CC.No.12 of 2017, dated 30.08.2018.

2. For the sake of convenience, the parties herein after are referred to as they were arrayed in the impugned Charge Sheet, i.e. A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 and A7 and the Respondent Police. Though there are seven accused persons/A1 to A7 and the charges were framed against all of them, namely, A1 to A7, only five accused persons/A7, A5, A6, A3 and A4 have challenged the impugned charges, by way of the above Criminal Original Petitions.

3. The facts, in a nutshell, leading to filing of these Criminal Original Petitions and also relevant and necessary for disposal of these Criminal Original Petitions are as follows:-

a. On receipt of reliable information, the Respondent Police, after conducting a preliminary enquiry, finding that Mr. Dhayanithi Maran (Former Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology) and others had hatched a conspiracy to commit breach of trust, fabricated documents, used the forged documents as genuine and falsified accounts detrimental to the Government Exchequer, had registered a First Information Report on 23.07.2013. In the course of the investigation, materials were collected, which according to the Prosecution, were sufficient and relevant to frame charges and try the named accused persons and filed the final report for prosecuting them.

b. The offences were allegedly said to have taken place during the period from 23.05.2004 to 13.05.2007. During such period, A1, K.B. Brahmadathan was working as the Chief General Manager, BSNL Chennai, Chennai District, A2, M.P. Velusamy was working as the Chief General Manager, BSNL Chennai District, A3 was the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Government of India, A4 was working as the Additional Private Secretary to MOCIT, A5 was working as the Electrician in the Sun TV, Chennai, A6 was working as the Chief Technical Officer, in the Sun TV, Chennai and A7 was the Chairman and Managing Director of the Sun TV. It is alleged that A1 to A4 are Public Servants and A5 to A7 are private persons.

c. The sum and substance of the final report in a nutshell is that A3, while he was the Minister for Communication and Information Technology (MOC&IT) in the Government of India during 2004 to 2007, by abusing his Official Position, in connivance with A1, A2, A4 to A7 had obtained pecuniary advantage and caused, to the Government Exchequer, a loss of Rs 1.78 crores by installing a private telephone exchange at his residences at the Boat Club and Gopalapuram at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, which he had used for business transactions involving the Sun TV Network. More than 700 high-end telecom lines, having PRA/BRA/ISDN/leased line, were installed at the residences of A3 at the Boat Club area and Gopalapuram area at Chennai. They were installed under the Service Category and bills were not raised for such utilisation. Apart from such illegal installation of Landlines with ISDN facilities, on the instructions of A3, additional SIM cards for use of mobile phones with fancy numbers were blocked for SUN TV and distributed to private individuals connected with SUN TV Network. The facilities given to A3 was excessive, without any authority and not in consonance with the Rules and entitlement of Minister or Member of Parliament. By fabricating and forging the records, the accused had used such facilities as genuine to cover up the misdeeds. Based on fabricated documents, accounts were also falsified to show as if there was no outstanding dues from A3.

d. To substantiate the above allegations, the Respondent Police had relied upon 124 documents, most of which, are files