A Delhi court on Wednesday remanded AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran and his co-accused Mallikarjuna to five days’ police custody in the case of alleged attempt to bribe certain officials of the Election Commission for allotment of two leaves symbol to the Amma faction.
The Delhi Police had arrested the two accused on Tuesday night.
The third accused, Sukesh Chandrashekhar, is already in police custody. The police alleged that Dhinakaran had made the attempt to bribe through middleman Chandrashekhar.
Mallikarjuna was arrested for allegedly assisting Dhinakaran for transfer of alleged ₹50 crore bribe money from Chennai to the Capital.
Special Judge Poonam Chaudhary remanded the two accused to police custody till May 1.
Crime Branch’s demand
While producing the two accused before the court, the Crime Branch of the city police sought their seven days’ police custody, submitting that they were required to be taken to Chennai, Kochi and Bengaluru and confronted with Chandrashekhar.
Opposing the police custody plea, counsel for Dhinakaran, Vikas Pahwa, submitted that the police’s remand application did not mention reasons for taking him in police custody.
He further submitted that there was no justifiable reasons for arresting him as he had joined a lengthy investigation for the past four days and his phone was with the investigating officer of the case. The police had also violated the guidelines in the Arnesh Kumar judgement of the Supreme Court according which arrest is not mandatory in offences in which punishment is less than seven years.
Meanwhile, the police said that few more arrests were likely to be made.
Sources said that after the court order, Dhinakaran was taken to the Inter-State Cell at Chanakyapuri where he was questioned earlier for further interrogation.
PTI adds:
‘Fund flow via illegal channels’
Arrested AIADMK (Amma) leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran used “illegal channels” to transfer money from Chennai to Delhi as part of a deal between him and middleman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, police said on Wednesday.
Mr. Dhinakaran was arrested on Tuesday night following four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe an unidentified Election Commission official to get the undivided AIADMK’s election symbol for his faction. A close associate Mallikarjuna was also arrested.
