Delhi court extends judicial custody of suspected middleman in EC bribery case

New Delhi, Mar 14: A Delhi court extended by 14 days the judicial custody of an alleged middleman in the Election Commission bribery case involving AIADMK (Amma) faction leader T T V Dhinakaran.

Special judge Arvind Kumar extended the judicial custody of Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who was arrested on April 16 last year, and posted the matter for April 4 when arguments on framing of charges are likely to take place.

The court also asked Chandrashekhar to file his response by April 17 on a plea of the Income Tax Department for his interrogation for alleged possession of assets worth more than his declared income.

The I-T department, in its plea, has claimed that during its various search and enquiry in the matter, it was found that Chandrashekhar has purchased "11 luxury vehicles and one Ducati bike" and some expensive watches. The department claimed that he had purchased these assets by paying cash in violation of provisions of the I-T Act. Earlier in the day, the court granted bail to a Chennai-based senior advocate B Kumar, who is also an accused in the case.

The police had accused Chandrashekhar, Dhinakaran and others of hatching a criminal conspiracy to bribe some Election Commission officials. The Delhi Police had on December 14 last year filed a supplementary charge sheet against Dhinakaran, Chandrashekhar and seven others in the matter.

In its 701-page charge sheet filed on July 14 last year, the police had claimed that money recovered from Chandrashekar was sent by Dhinakaran through unaccounted channels with the help of other accused persons.

Chandrashekhar was named in the charge sheet for alleged offences of forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating, making a false document and criminal conspiracy under the IPC and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. Dhinakaran, accused of trying to bribe EC officials to get the "two leaves" poll symbol for the AIADMK faction led by V K Sasikala, was arrested on April 25 and granted bail on June 1.

PTI