Middleman's close aide held in EC bribery case

A close associate of middleman Sukesh Chandrashekhar has been arrested in connection with a bribery case with regard to allocation of poll symbol by the Election Commission to an AIADMK faction, police said on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, accused Pulkit Kundra was remanded to two-day police custody by a Tis Hazari court.

Kundra was arrested on Tuesday after it was found that he had provided three cars to Chandrashekhar during his stay in Delhi between April 2-16 and accompanied him to Chandni Chowk's hawala operators to get Rs 2 crore, police said. Kundra was allegedly given Rs 50 lakh, which were given to other persons.

Chandrashekhar, an aide of sacked AIADMK Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dinakaran, was arrested on April 16. He is now in judicial custody.

Kundra is being questioned to establish the money trail from Chennai to Delhi, a senior police officer said.

"Sukesh Chandrashekhar used WhatsApp calls to communicate. Therefore, the public servant involved in the bribery conspiracy is yet to be traced," a police official said.

The Delhi Police on July 14 charge-sheeted Chandrashekhar under the Indian Penal Code provisions related to forgery of valuable security, forgery for purpose of cheating, making a false document, and criminal conspiracy, and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Police said a separate investigation report would be filed against Dinakaran and other accused later.

Dinakaran, accused of trying to bribe Election Commission officials to get the "two leaves" poll symbol for the AIADMK faction led by his aunt V.K. Sasikala, was arrested on April 25. He was granted bail on June 1.

The police said the criminal conspiracy was hatched by Chandrashekhar, Dinakaran, and others to bribe the Election Commission officials.

The money seized from Chandrashekhar was sent by Dinakaran through illegal channels with the help of others, the police alleged.

Mallikarjuna, a long-time friend of Dinakaran, and Naresh Jain, a "hawala" operator from Delhi, are the other suspects in the case.

--IANS

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