EC Bribery case: Suspected hawala operator sent to police custody

An alleged hawala operator was today sent to two-day police custody by a special court here in the Election Commission bribery case involving AIADMK (Amma) faction leader T T V Dinakaran.

Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry remanded Lalit Kumar alias Babu Bhai in the custody of Delhi Police crime branch till Saturday after the police said his custody was required for identification of the other accused and recovery of mobile phone by which he allegedly used to communicate to the other accused.

Public Prosecutor Balbir Singh sought custody of Kumar, saying he was the one who allegedly handed over Rs one crore unaccounted money to an unidentified person which was to be given to the arrested accused and middleman Sukesh Chandrashekar.

He further argued that the money was meant to bribe Election Commission (EC) officials to get a favourable order in the pending symbol matter involving Dinakaran.

The court also heard arguments on police's plea seeking consent of Dinakaran and Chandrashekar to obtain their voice sample and reserved the order to be pronounced later in the day.

While Chandrashekar had refused to give his consent for voice samples, Dinakaran had sought a copy of a CD which allegedly has audio recordings of phone conversations involving him, Chandrashekar and others.

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police had submitted in the court that they needed the voice samples for the probe into the Rs 50-crore graft case.

The court has now also fixed Monday for hearing the bail applications moved by Dhinakaran and close aide Mallikarjuna, presently in judicial custody.

Alleged hawala operator Nathu Singh, an accused in the case, is also lodged in judicial custody till May 29.

Dhinakaran was arrested here on the night of April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe unidentified EC officials to get the undivided AIADMK's 'two leaves' election symbol.

His faction had hoped to obtain the symbol for byelection to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu, which was later on cancelled by the EC after the alleged irregularities were reported in the media.

The EC had frozen the AIADMK's symbol after two factions of the party -- one led by Dhinakaran's aunt Sasikala and the other by former chief minister O Panneerselvam -- staked a claim to it.

Dinakaran has been accused of allegedly arranging money from undisclosed sources and getting it transferred from Chennai to Delhi through illegal channels.

Mallikarjuna was arrested for allegedly facilitating the Rs 50 crore deal between DhinakaranI and Chandrashekar, who was arrested on April 16.