Delhi Police questions Dinakaran of AIADMK in poll symbol case

New Delhi : Delhi Police on Saturday questioned sidelined AIADMK Deputy General Secretary T.T.V. Dinakaran for allegedly attempting to bribe Election Commission officials in a case related to the party's poll symbol.

Dinakaran, the nephew of jailed party chief Sasikala, appeared before the investigators in Delhi in the afternoon after arriving from Chennai and was questioned till late night. 

Investigators said that Dinakaran's personnel assistant was also interrogated over the issue and was asked if he knows the alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar who was arrested from a five-star hotel on April 16. 

They further said that Dinakaran was questioned alone and also confronted with Chandrasekar to clarify their versions over the issue. 

As part of investigation, the officers also go through the call records of the politician.

Dinakaran appeared before Delhi Police's interstate crime Branch office in Chanakyapuri in the capital's diplomatic enclave following its April 19 summons with Saturday deadline. 

"Dinakaran reached at the Crime Branch office and was questioned over nine hours," said a Crime Branch official. 

High drama was witnessed late on Wednesday night when a Dinakaran follower attempted self-immolation when police arrived at his Besant Nagar residence in Chennai to serve him summons.

The Delhi Police has booked Dinakaran for allegedly attempting to bribe Election Commission officials through Chandrasekar to get a favourable verdict in the party's two leaves symbol case. 

Police have said that the duo struck a Rs 50 crore deal to try and bribe officials from the Election Commission.

The poll body has frozen the AIADMK's two leaves symbol with two factions -- one led by party General Secretary V.K. Sasikala and the other by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam -- claiming it as their own.