The Delhi Police on Monday said that after days of denial, both public and during questioning by the police, AIADMK (Amma) faction leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran had admitted that he knew alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar.
As Mr. Dhinakaran’s questioning entered the third day, he purportedly made the admission that he had, in fact, met Sukesh once. In that meeting, said an officer, Sukesh allegedly posed as a High Court judge.
“We have been interrogating Mr. Dhinakaran since April 22 when he arrived here. In the past couple of days, we confronted the duo; they had contradictory versions about knowing each other. While Sukesh repeatedly claimed that he had met and spoken to Mr. Dhinakaran several times before he was arrested, Mr. Dhinakaran had flatly refuted this, claiming he was a complete stranger,” said the officer.
The two have been booked for attempting to bribe Election Commission officials to get a favourable verdict on the coveted ‘Two Leaves’ symbol on which Mr. Dhinakaran wanted to contest the now cancelled R.K. Nagar bypolls in Chennai.
A common link between the two has also emerged as both had hired the same lawyer for dealing with their cases, said the officer. In the past, Mr. Dhinakaran had said that he did not know who Sukesh Chandrashekhar was, something he maintained even after arriving at the Capital for joining the investigations.
Asked if the call details on any electronic evidence have also shown that the two had been constantly in touch, the officer said most of the conversations were via WhatsApp calls which even the forensic tests might not help them retrieve.
Including the two, the police have so far questioned 15 people in connection with the case and more are likely to be questioned. They have also written to the Election Commission for an explainer as far as the process of deciding the symbols in the factional battle was concerned, the reply for which is still awaited.
The officer also said that they might ask for an extension of Sukesh’s custody which expires on Tuesday as more clarifications were needed.
The ₹10 crore allegedly given to Sukesh is also being probed, as are his claims of the final amount being ₹50 crore as “it could be even higher.” So far, ₹1.3 crore have been recovered, which Sukesh claims was transported via cars from Chennai to Delhi.
Asked if some of the money paid to him had already made its way to EC officials whom he claimed to know, the officer said no evidence has emerged to suggest the same.
A Special Investigating Team (SIT) is now probing the case.
