AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran tells court ED gave publicity to prejudice case to embarrass him

Chennai: AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran on Tuesday told a court in Chennai that the Enforcement Directorate had given undue publicity to “prejudice” a FERA case against him, which was denied by the Central agency.[caption id=“attachment_3960335” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of TTV Dhinakaran. PTI[/caption] During cross-examination of prosecution witness in the case at an Economic Offences court, Dinakaran’s counsel B Kumar told Kistoor Chand, a retired ED official that the agency had given “undue publicity about the case to embarrass and prejudice the case of the accused (Dinakaran)”. Chand denied it and to a question that “high-profile searches by the ED was to instill fear”, the witness said for the agency all searches were (the same), “ordinary”. When Dinakaran’s counsel told Chand that the AIADMK leader was assessed for income tax and it was verified and found to be correct by him, the former official said he did not remember if his income tax particulars were checked to be correct or not. He was cross-examined for about one and a half hours before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Economic Offences) S Malarmathy and she recorded the submissions. The witness was cross-examined on questions including those related to income of Dhinakaran, his income tax, immovable properties, investments, and aspects covering searches and seizure. The cross-examination will continue on Wednesday. The case of the prosecution is that Dinakaran acquired $1,04,93,313 without the nod of the Reserve Bank of India and deposited it in the account of Dipper Investments with Barclays Bank, United Kingdom allegedly violating FERA. The investment firm was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.