Delhi police officials on Wednesday night served summons on AIADMK deputy chief T.T.V. Dhinakaran in Chennai, in a case of an alleged attempt to bribe Election Commission officials in Delhi for retrieving the party’s “two leaves” symbol.
It is, however, not known when Mr. Dhinakaran has been asked to appear before them. Assistant Commissioner Sanjay Sherawat and another official served the summons on Mr. Dhinakaran at his Besant Nagar residence in Chennai.
The Delhi police personnel, who were inside Mr. Dhinakaran’s house for about 20 minutes, declined to speak to the waiting media while leaving the premises.
Anxiety and tension, meanwhile, prevailed for a while as a party worker tried allegedly to set himself ablaze. The self-immolation bid was thwarted by other cadre and some plainclothesmen.
Mr. Dhinakaran had, soon after the arrest of Sukesh Chandrasekhar, the alleged middleman in the bribery deal, asserted that he would face the matter legally.
He had denied any knowledge of Sukesh.
On Tuesday the Delhi police had issued a lookout notice against Mr. Dhinakaran.
The lookout notice was issued in the wake of inputs that he was an NRI and could try to flee the country, police said.
Delhi police sources said there is strong evidence to show Sukesh and Mr. Dhinakaran had been in constant touch with each other for the alleged deal.
₹50 crore deal
Sukesh has disclosed that he had struck a deal for ₹50 crore for helping the Sasikala faction keep the ‘two leaves’ symbol.
Till now, the middleman had allegedly got ₹10 crore of the deal amount and the remaining was to be given to him in a time-bound manner.
While ₹1.3 crore was seized from him, what happened to the other ₹8.7 crore is also being probed.
( With inputs from
Shubhomoy Sikdhar )
