TTV Dhinakaran, deputy general secretary of Sasikala's AIADMK (Amma), confessed to meeting middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar, who was arrested last week in the Election Commission (EC) bribery case related to the party's 'Two Leaves' symbol. Dhinakaran was grilled for over seven hours by the Delhi Police for the third consecutive day on Monday.
Dhinakaran said that he assumed Chandrasekar to be a high court judge when he met him. However, the AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary maintained that he did not give any money to the middleman to retain the party symbol. Dhinakaran is accused of attempting to bribe an official of the poll panel to try to retain the 'Two Leaves' symbol for the Sasikala camp.
Dhinakaran's personal assistant Janardhan was being interrogated by the police when he reached the Crime Branch Inter State Cell office in Chanakyapuri around 3:30 pm. Dhinakaran's long-time friend Mallikarjuna was also arrested, the police said. Mallikarjuna has been accompanying the AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary everywhere since Chandrasekar's arrest. Dhinakaran was interrogated from 6 pm to 1 am, the police added.
During the interrogation, Dhinakaran said that he had met Chandrsekar, who posed a judge of the high court, to request him to help in retaining the 'Two Leaves' symbol. Police sources told the Press Trust of India (PTI) that Dhinakaran denied having paid any money to the middleman to retain the party symbol. They added that the officers of the Crime Branch also confronted Dhinakaran and Chandrasekar.
Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's lawyer B Kumar also came to the crime branch office late in the evening and is expected to be questioned on Wednesday in connection with the matter, the news agency reported.
The crime branch of the Delhi Police had filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Dhinakaran on April 17 for allegedly offering a bribe to the EC for the 'Two Leaves' symbol of the AIADMK. Chandrasekar, Dinakaran's alleged middleman, was arrested from Hyatt Hotel in New Delhi on Sunday night.
The police also seized Rs 1.3 crore from him along with a BMW and a Mercedes car. Media reports suggest that Rs 50 crore was supposed to be paid as bribe. Delhi police teams had also served summons to Dhinakaran, who had initially said that he did not know anyone by the name of Sukesh Chandrasekhar and had not "bribed anyone for anything."
Dinakaran, who is Sasikala's nephew, has been booked under Sections 170 (personating a public servant) and 120b (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 8 (taking gratification, in order, by corrupt or illegal means, to influence public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
This development comes even as talks of a merger between both factions of the AIADMK — CM Edapadi Palaniswamy's camp and O Panneerselvam's camp — are going on. On Tuesday, Panneerselvam demanded that Sasikala's portraits be removed from the party office to mantain its "sanctity."
Panneerselvam had also demanded that Sasikala and Dhinakaran be expelled from the party if merger talks are to continue. Dhinakaran had then said that he would not involve himself with the affairs of the party, but only Sasikala had the right to expel him since she is still the general secretary of the AIADMK.
Sasikala is currently serving a four-year jail term in Bengaluru after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case.
