Dhinakaran seeks audio tape that police claim have incriminating evidence

He is a co-accused in the AIADMK Election Commission briber case

AIADMK (Amma) faction leader TTV Dhinakaran today sought in a special court the copy of a CD which allegedly has audio recordings of phone conversations between him and a co-accused in the Election Commission bribery case.

The response of Dhinakaran, who is in judicial custody, came on the Delhi Police's plea seeking his consent for taking the voice samples.

Dhinakaran's counsel told Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry that he should be given a copy of the CD which the police claimed had the audio recordings of telephone conversations between him and arrested alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrashekar and others.

The advocate said he would decide whether to give the consent for voice samples or not after going through the CD.

Dhinakaran, his close aide Mallikarjuna and alleged hawala operator Nathu Singh were produced from jail through video conferencing, as the court extended their judicial custody till May 29.

Chandrashekar has refused to give consent for the voice samples citing several Supreme Court and high court judgements that he has a right to deny.

The court listed the police's plea seeking voice samples of Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar for arguments on May 18. The court would also hear Mallikarjuna's bail plea on that day.

Delhi Police's Crime Branch has submitted before the court that they needed the voice samples for their probe into the Rs 50 crore graft case.

Police said it has a CD containing the audio recordings of the phone conversations between Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar and others and they wanted to compare the audios with the voice samples.

Dhinakaran was arrested here on the night of April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe an unidentified EC official to get the undivided AIADMK's 'two leaves' election symbol.

His faction had hoped to obtain the symbol for a by- election to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu, which was later cancelled by the Election Commission (EC) after the alleged scam broke out in the media.

The EC had frozen the AIADMK's symbol after two factions of the party -- one led by Dhinakaran's aunt Sasikala and the other by former chief minister O Panneerselvam -- staked a claim to it.

Dhinakaran has been accused of allegedly arranging the amount from undisclosed sources and getting it transferred from Chennai to Delhi through illegal channels.

Mallikarjuna was arrested for allegedly facilitating the Rs 50 crore deal between Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar, who was arrested on April 16.

Singh was held on the night of April 27 with the police claiming that he was given Rs one crore to be handed over to Chandrashekar. The money was meant to be paid as a bribe to someone in the EC, the police has claimed.