Dinakaran, friend brought to Chennai for questioning

Ruling AIADMK General Secretary T.T.V. Dinakaran, arrested by Delhi Police for alleged bribery, was flown here on Thursday for further investigation.

Soon after landing at the Chennai airport, Dinakaran was taken to Rajaji Bhavan in Besant Nagar where central government offices are located for questioning.

Dinakaran is the nephew of AIADMK General Secretary V.K. Sasikala, who is in jail in Bengaluru after being convicted for corruption.

Delhi Police also flew down Dinakaran's friend Mallikarjuna to Chennai along with the former.

The Delhi Police arrested Dinakaran on charge of trying to pay Rs 50 crore as bribe to Election Commission officials through middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar, who has also been arrested.

The alleged bribe was to secure the party's "two leaves" symbol to his faction of the AIADMK.

The AIADMK split into two after the death of Jayalalithaa in December 2016.

One faction is led by Sasikala and the other by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.

The Election Commission had frozen the party's "two leaves" symbol and the party name when the two groups claimed the same.

The poll panel is hearing the case as to which faction the symbol should be allotted to.

On April 26, Dinakaran was remanded to five days in police custody.

Police would search Dinakaran and Mallikarjuna's residences and also analyse their laptops, computers and bank statements to get more possible leads to establish their involvement in the bribery case.

"The transaction had taken place through some Chennai operators and there are possibilities that the team can obtain some data through their laptops and computers," a Delhi Police Officer told IANS.

"We want to establish the route through which Dinakaran and Mallikarjuna came in contact with Sukesh Chandrashekhar, a co-accused in the case," the officer added.

Chandrashekhar was arrested from a south Delhi hotel on April 16 night, allegedly with Rs 1.3 crore meant for bribing poll panel officials.

Chandrashekhar had allegedly told the police he was Dinakaran's "middleman" and was asked to pay the money to the officials for allotting the party symbol to AIADMK's Sasikala faction.

--IANS

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