Dinakaran admits to knowing ‘middleman’, say Delhi police
AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran —who is being questioned by the Delhi Police for his alleged role in an attempt to bribe ‘middle man’ Sukesh Chandrasekar to secure the disputed party symbol of two leaves — has admitted to knowing Chandrasekar, police said on Monday.
Until Sunday, Dinakaran had both publicly and during his initial questioning by the Delhi Police crime branch denied knowing Chandrasekar.
An FIR was registered against Dinakaran, the AIADMK deputy general secretary, on April 16 after Chandrasekar was arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi and ₹1.3 crore and two luxury cars recovered from him.
Chandrasekar had allegedly promised to use his contacts in Election Commission of India (ECI) to get the disputed symbol for his faction.
The factional war in the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu following the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa saw the party split into two — AIADMK (Amma) and AIADMK Puratchi Thalavi Amma. The poll panel is to decide which faction will get the AIADMK’s two leaves symbol.
Dinakaran, nephew of VK Sasikala who is serving a jail term in a corruption case , is the party’s RK Nagar candidate.
Dinakaran was questioned for almost 11 hours on Sunday and seven hours on Saturday. The investigators grilled him about his association with Chandrasekar and the money trail.
His questioning entered the third day on Monday during which he purportedly confessed to knowing Chandrasekar. He was being questioned till the filing of this report.
The AIADMK leader’s confession, an investigator said, came after the police confronted him with a recorded telephonic conversation between him and Chandrasekar almost 20 hours before the latter was arrested on April 16.