A special court on Monday dismissed the bail plea of an alleged middleman arrested in the Election Commission bribery case involving AIADMK (Amma) faction leader T T V Dhinakaran.
Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry said it was not appropriate to grant bail to Sukesh Chandrashekar at this stage as it was a serious crime and he could tamper with the evidence.
The court also said the investigation of the Delhi Police Crime Branch was going on and the agency was probing the recovered CD containing alleged conversation between Mr. Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar, who was arrested on May 16.
The court, which was scheduled to hear the bail pleas of Dhinakaran and his close aide Mallikarjuna on Monday, listed the matter for May 26 after the AIADMK faction leader’s counsel sought an adjournment.
Chandrashekar had filed the bail application claiming he was falsely implicated and made a scapegoat in the case and that he was ready to join the probe.
The police opposed his bail plea saying they were probing the recovered CD allegedly containing telephonic conversation of Chandrashekar and Mr. Dhinakaran.
It said the allegations were grave and they have to make more arrests in the case.
Both the accused had earlier refused consent to give their voice samples to the police to compare it with those contained in the CD recovered during the investigation.
Mr. Dhinakaran, Mallikarjuna, Chandrashekar and suspected hawala operators Nathu Singh and co-accused Lalit Kumar, are currently in judicial custody.
Mr. Dhinakaran was arrested on the night of April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe unidentified Election Commission (EC) officials to get the undivided AIADMK’s ‘two leaves’ election symbol.
His faction had hoped to obtain the symbol for the bypoll to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu, which was later on cancelled by the EC after the alleged irregularities were reported in the media.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who was elected from the constituency.
The EC had frozen the AIADMK’s symbol after two factions of the party — one led by Mr. Dhinakaran’s aunt Sasikala and the other by former chief minister O Panneerselvam — staked claim to it.
Mr. Dhinakaran has been accused of allegedly arranging the money from undisclosed sources and getting it transferred from Chennai to Delhi through illegal channels.
Mallikarjuna was arrested for allegedly facilitating a Rs 50-crore deal between Mr. Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar.
