The Delhi High Court today directed the Delhi Police to file a consolidated status report on the bail plea of a middleman arrested in the Election Commission bribery case, allegedly involving AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran and others.
Justice Mukta Gupta asked the Delhi Police Crime Branch to be ready to answer the questions relating to what they have done in the investigation of the case.
The court asked the police to file a consolidated status report in a week and listed the bail application of accused and alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrashekar’s for further hearing on December 18.
During the hearing, senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog and advocate Anand pandey, appearing for Chandrashekar, sought bail saying the main beneficiary and accused Dhinakaran has already been released on bail and even the co-accused, Dhinakaran’s close aide Mallikarjuna, suspected hawala operators Nathu Singh and Lalit Kumar, have been granted bail.
He also said that charge sheet has been filed against Chandrashekar and the police has not yet probed as to who had allegedly prepared a fake identity card of Rajya Sabha MP purportedly recovered from him.
Prosecutor Hiren Sharma opposed the bail plea saying three more cases have been registered against Chandrashekar while he was in custody and there are a total of 24 FIRs lodged against him.
He contended that the conduct of the accused showed he had no respect for law.
Referring to the new FIRs lodged against him while he was in custody, the prosecutor said while Chandrashekar was supposed to be taken by train, he was going by air along with seven constables against whom action has been initiated.
He also claimed that the accused had made a call to the trial court judge, hearing the case, impersonating as a person from a Supreme Court judge’s office and asked her to release him on bail.
The call was traced to a constable’s phone while Chandrashekhar was in custody, the prosecutor argued.
Chandrashekar, arrested on April 16, has been denied bail once by the high court and thrice by the trial court.
The high court had on June 15 rejected his bail plea on the ground that the police had seized a fake Rajya Sabha member ID card from his possession.
A chargesheet was filed by the police before the trial court in the case on July 14 alleging that Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar had conspired to bribe Election Commission (EC) officials to get the ‘two leaves’ symbol for their party.
The police also included in the charge sheet allegations of forgery for purpose of cheating, using forged document as genuine, possessing a forged document, intending to use it as genuine and criminal conspiracy.
Chandrashekar had moved the high court alleging that he was tortured despite an order not to subject him to violence inside the Tihar Jail where he is in custody. The plea is also listed for hearing on December 18.
The claim was denied by the jail authorities, who said it was an “afterthought of the shrewd mind of the accused”.
Chandrashekar was arrested for allegedly taking money from Dhinakaran to bribe EC officials to get the AIADMK ‘two leaves’ symbol for the Sasikala faction in a by-election to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu.
Dhinakaran was arrested here on April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe EC officials for the symbol. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, who represented the assembly segment.
The EC had frozen the AIADMK’s symbol after the two factions — 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.
( Source – PTI )
