 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Delhi Police has issued a lookout notice against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dinakaran, accused of bribing an Election Commission official to get the coveted ‘two-leaves’ symbol for his faction.
The action comes in the wake of inputs that Dinakaran was an NRI and could try to flee, police said.
Praveer Ranjan, Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) confirmed that the lookout notice has been issued and said that it was a preventive action.
Immigration officials have been alerted, police said.
Dinakaran, meanwhile, virtually questioned the need for the lookout notice, asking how could he flee the country when his passport ‘is in court’ for 20 years.
“My passport is in court for 20 years. How can I escape from India,” he told reporters in Chennai.
He was apparently referring to the pending The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act cases against him in a court in Chennai in connection with which he has surrendered his passport.
Earlier the Crime Branch had arrested an alleged middleman, Sukesh Chandrashekhar here in connection with the matter.
He claimed that he had told Dinakaran that he will get a favourable verdict from the Election Commission of India in the party symbol case, he said.
The 27-year-old had told Dinakaran that he has contacts in the Election Commission and his contacts will help the Sasikala faction get the AIADMK’s poll symbol of ‘two leaves’ in a by-election to the RK Nagar assembly seat in Tamil Nadu.
Police got on Chadrashekhar’s trail after they received a tip-off from an informer about certain Election Commission officials being approached.
It has been learnt that he had struck a deal for Rs 50 crore for helping the AIADMK faction keep the ‘two leaves’ symbol, said an officer privy to the probe.
Till now, the middleman had allegedly got Rs 10 crore of the deal amount and the remaining amount was to be given to him in a time-bound manner.
He had allegedly received money through some Chandni Chowk based hawala operators and police is probing the hawala link.
On Tuesday, Sukesh was taken to Chandni Chowk by Crime Branch officers to identify the hawala operators.
There are chances he might be taken to Chennai to uncover the money trail.
IMAGE: T T V Dinakaran. Photograph: @AIADMKOfficial/Twitter