Delhi court grants bail to accused in EC bribery case

A Delhi court today granted bail to a senior advocate, who is an accused in the Election Commission bribery case involving AIADMK (Amma) faction leader T T V Dhinakaran.

Special judge Arvind Kumar granted bail to Chennai-based B Kumar and asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and two sureties of the like amount.

Dhinakaran was also present in the court following summons issued against him last month.

The Income Tax department has also moved an application to examine Sukesh Chandrashekhar, an alleged middleman, who is presently in judicial custody.

The Delhi police had on December 14 last year filed a supplementary charge sheet against Dhinakaran, Chandrashekhar, Mallikarjuna, a long-time friend of Dhinakaran, and six others in the case.

Dhinakaran, who was not mentioned as an accused in the charge sheet filed by the police in July last year, has now been accused of offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC, besides taking gratification by corrupt or illegal means to influence public servant under Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act).

The others have been accused of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and destruction of evidence under the IPC and provisions of the PC Act.

In its 701-page charge sheet filed on July 14, the police had claimed that money recovered from Chandrashekar was sent by Dhinakaran through unaccounted channels with the help of other accused persons.

Chandrashekhar, who was arrested on April 16 this year, was named in the charge sheet for alleged offences of forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating, making a false document and criminal conspiracy under the IPC and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Dhinakaran, accused of trying to bribe EC officials to get the "two leaves" poll symbol for the AIADMK faction led by V K Sasikala, was arrested on April 25 and granted bail on June 1.

The police had accused Chandrashekhar, Dhinakaran and others of hatching a criminal conspiracy to bribe the Election Commission officials.