JUDGMENT :

N. ANAND VENKATESH, J.

1. These Criminal Original Petitions have been filed challenging the proceedings pending before the Court below against the accused persons in C.C. No. 12 of 2017.

2. Case of the prosecution is that, the 3rd Accused Dayanidhi Maran, while he was the Minister for Communication and Information Technology (MOC&IT) in the Government of India during 2004 to 2007 abused and misused his office in connivance with the other accused A-1 [Brahamadathan], A-2 [M.P. Velusamy] (both were Senior Officials of BSNL (Chief General Manager), A-4 [V. Vedagiri Gowtham], Private Secretary, A-5 [K.S. Ravi] Electrician and A-6 [S. Kannan] CTO, SUN TV and his brother A-7 [Kalanithi Maran] CMD of SUN TV and had obtained pecuniary advantage and caused the exchequer a loss of Rs. 1.78 crores by installing a private telephone exchange at his residences in Boat Club and Gopalapuram at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, which he used for business transactions involving the Sun Network. More than 700 high-end Telecom lines, having PRA/BRA/ ISDN/leased-line, were installed at the third accused residences in the Boat Club area and Gopalapuram area of the Chennai City. They were installed under the