EC bribery case: Delhi High Court stays trial against ex-AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, lists matter for 20 March

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed the trial against former AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran in a case of allegedly bribing Election Commission officials for getting the ’two leaves’ symbol for the Sasikala-led faction of the party. Justice Sunil Gaur also sought a response of the Delhi Police on Dhinakaran’s plea challenging framing of charges against him by the trial court for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence in the case. The high court in its interim order stayed the trial court proceedings and listed the matter for further hearing on 20 March. [caption id=“attachment_4062449” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of TTV Dhinakaran. PTI[/caption] Dhinakaran, in his application through senior advocate Arvind Nigam and advocate Naveen Malhotra, sought the quashing of trial court’s 4 December, 2018, order in the case of alleged bribery to Election Commission officials to get the ’two leaves’ symbol for the party. A trial court here had framed charges for the alleged offences punishable under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under section 8 (taking gratification by corrupt or illegal means to influence public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. It had on 17 November last year ordered framing of charges against him. Dhinakaran, who floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam party after being expelled from the AIADMK, was arrested in April 2017 and later granted bail. Dhinakaran won the by-elections held in Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in December 2017 under the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol with a margin of over 40,000 votes. Alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar, who is in judicial custody, was earlier put on trial in the case for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence under the IPC and under the PC Act. Dhinakaran’s aide TP Mallikarjun and a man called B Kumar were also put on trial for these offences. In 2017, Delhi Police’s crime branch filed a charge sheet alleging that Chandrasekar had conspired with Dhinakaran and others to bribe poll panel officials to get the two leaves symbol for Sasikala-led AIADMK faction.