Symbol case: Court seeks police reply on bail plea of accused

A Special court today sought a response from Delhi Police on the bail application of an alleged middleman arrested in the Election Commission bribery case involving AIADMK (Amma) faction leader T T V Dhinakaran.

Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry issued a notice to Delhi Police's Crime Branch on the plea and posted the matter for arguments on June 7.

Accused Sukesh Chandrashekar sought relief on grounds of parity with Dhinakaran, who was granted bail on June 1. He said his custody period had exceeded that of the AIADMK leader.

Chandrashekar, arrested on April 16, claimed he had been made a "scapegoat" and "falsely implicated" in the case.

The plea, filed through advocate Anand Pandey, said Dhinakaran had been granted bail even though he was more "influential" than Chandrashekar.

This is Chandrashekar's second bail plea as the court had declined an earlier application fearing that he could tamper with evidence.

The court will tomorrow pronounce its order on the bail pleas of suspected hawala operator Nathu Singh and co-accused Lalit Kumar, who are in judicial custody.

Dhinakaran and his close aide Mallikarjuna were granted bail by the court which had said the poll officials who were allegedly being bribed so that Dhinakaran's faction of the AIADMK could get the 'two leaves' election symbol were yet to be identified.

Dhinakaran was arrested here on the night of April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe Election Commission (EC) officials for the symbol.

His faction had hoped to obtain the symbol for the bypoll to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu, which was later cancelled by the EC after the alleged irregularities were reported in the media.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who represented the constituency.

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.

Mallikarjuna was arrested for allegedly facilitating a Rs 50-crore deal between Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar.

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