Cops get nod for taking Dhinakaran's consent for voice sample

A special court today allowed the Delhi Police to obtain the consent of AIADMK (Amma) faction leader T T V Dhinakaran for his voice sample required for its investigation in the Election Commission bribery case.
"Thus, as the consent of accused (Dhinakaran) is required for voice matching with the alleged voice of accused contained in the CD, I deem it expedient in the interest of justice to allow the investigating officer (IO) to take requisite steps to obtain consent of accused for giving his voice sample for comparison from CFSL, CBI Lodhi Road here with alleged voice of accused contained in the CD," special judge Poonam Chaudhry said.

During the day, the court also remanded suspected hawala operator Lalit Kumar alias Babu Bhai in the custody of Delhi Police crime branch till Saturday.
The police had said his custody was required for identification of other accused and recovery of the mobile phone which he allegedly used to communicate with other accused.
Public prosecutor Balbir Singh sought the custody of Kumar, who was arrested today, saying he was the one who allegedly handed over Rs 1 crore unaccounted money to an unidentified person which was to be given to the arrested accused and middleman Sukesh Chandrashekar.
He further argued that the money was meant to bribe the Election Commission (EC) officials to get a favourable order in the pending symbol matter involving Dhinakaran.

The police had sought permission to obtain the consent of Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar to compare their voice with those contained in a CD recovered during the investigation.

While Dhinakaran raised objection on maintainability of the police's plea, Chandrashekar had refused to give his consent for voice samples.
Senior advocate Aman Lekhi and advocate Naveen Malhotra, who appeared for Dhinakaran, contended that there was no provision of CrPC which entitles the investigating officer to move an application in the court during the pendency of the investigation to obtain voice sample of an accused.
The defence counsel also argued that the court cannot entertain the police's plea as it cannot interfere in the course of investigation.

Prosecutor Singh, however, said police was not forcing the accused to give his consent for voice sample and it was only asking whether he wanted to give consent or not.
Co-accused Chandrashekar today filed a bail plea in the court claiming that he falsely implicated and made a scapegoat in the case and that he was ready to join the probe. His bail plea is likely to be heard next week.
Bail applications of Dhinakaran and his close aide Mallikarjuna, currently in judicial custody, is also pending before the court.
Dhinakaran, Mallikarjuna, Chandrashekar and suspected hawala operator Nathu Singh, another accused in the case, are lodged in judicial custody till May 29.

Dhinakaran was arrested here on the night of April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe unidentified EC officials to get the undivided AIADMK's 'two leaves' election symbol.
His faction had hoped to obtain the symbol for by- election 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 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 money 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.