EC bribery case: HC dismisses middleman's bail plea
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Friday dismissed the bail plea of a middleman, arrested in the 2017 Election Commission bribery case which allegedly involved former AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran and others.
Justice Mukta Gupta denied relief to Sukesh Chandrashekar, who was arrested on April 16, 2017 for allegedly bribing EC officials for getting the 'two leaves' symbol for the Sasikala-led faction of the party.
"Bail application is dismissed," the judge said, while pronouncing the order.
The high court and the trial court have denied him bail on several occasions.
On an earlier occasion, the high court had rejected his bail plea on the ground that the police had seized a fake Rajya Sabha member ID card from his possession.
A trial court had framed charges against the accused for the alleged offences punishable under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under section 8 (taking gratification by corrupt or illegal means to influence public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.
A charge sheet was filed by the police before the trial court in the case in July 2017, alleging that Dhinakaran and Chandrashekar had conspired to bribe EC officials to get the 'two leaves' symbol for their party.
The police has 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 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, who floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam party after being expelled from the AIADMK, was arrested here on April 25, 2017 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe EC officials for the symbol. The by-poll was necessitated by the death of Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, who represented the assembly segment.
Dhinakaran won the by-elections held in Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in December 2017 under the 'pressure cooker' symbol with a margin of over 40,000 votes.
Dhinakaran's aide T P Mallikarjun and a man called B Kumar were also put on trial for these offences.
