EC bribery case: Delhi police leaves for Chennai with Dinakaran

New Delhi: A day after a court here remanded AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran to five-day’s police custody, a crime branch team on Thursday flew him and his aide Mallikarjuna to Chennai for further investigations into the alleged attempt to bribe officials of the Election Commission to release the party’s “two leaves” symbol. [caption id=“attachment_3405124” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of TTV Dinakaran. PTI[/caption] “The crime branch team left for Chennai along with Dinakaran and Mallikarjuna on Thursday morning,” a senior police officer told IANS pleading anonymity. Police would search Dinakaran and Mallikarjuna’s residence to get more possible leads to establish their involvement in the bribery case. “The transaction had taken place through some Chennai operators and there are possibilities that the team can obtain some data through their laptops and computers,” the officer said. Dinakaran was arrested on Tuesday night by the Delhi Police crime branch for trying to pay out Rs 50 crore in bribes to the poll officials through Sukesh Chandrasekhar to ensure the “two leaves” poll symbol was allotted to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) faction led by Sasikala. “The police want to establish the route though which Dinakaran and Mallikarjuna have come in contact with Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who is a co-accused in the case,” the officer said. Chandrasekhar was arrested from a south Delhi hotel on 16 April night, allegedly with Rs 1.3 crore meant for bribing poll panel officials. Chandrasekhar had allegedly told the police he was Dinakaran’s “middleman” and was asked to pay the money to the officials for allotting the party symbol to AIADMK’s Sasikala faction.