5 more held in Rs 35 crore MLA bribe case

CHENNAI: The Chennai Police have arrested five more persons, including an AIADMK functionary, in connection with the alleged attempt to bribe a Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) MLA to vote against the assembly speaker.

With this, the total number of arrests in the case has risen to eight. Three persons — a political strategist and two associates of former minister DMK MLA V Senthil Balaji and his brother Ashok Kumar — were arrested earlier.

The city police had said that the persons arrested earlier acted on behalf of Senthil Balaji and Ashok. Police sources said the brothers are likely to be questioned too.

The accused arrested on Thursday have been identified as Selvan (54) of Pallikaranai, Srinivasan (46) of Manapakkam, Rajesh (43) of Hastinapuram, Ramesh (45) and Karthik (43) of Karur. The police said Karthik runs a popular eatery in Karur and is a close associate of Senthil Balaji.

The complainant, N Ilayaraja, the TVK MLA from Uthangarai in Krishnagiri district, had approached the Chennai police commissioner on June 29, stating he was approached by a man identified as Thirunavukkarasu with the offer.

Thirunavukkarasu claimed he ran a survey firm named Indian Political Democratic Strategies (IPDS) and said he was contacting Ilayaraja with an offer.

When Ilayaraja disconnected the call, Thirunavukkarasu called again and allegedly told the MLA to vote against the speaker, despite being a ruling party member, and offered Rs 35 crore as reward.

In his complaint, Ilayaraja alleged that Thirunavukkarasu not only tried to bribe him but also threatened him and his family. He sought legal action against Thirunavukkarasu and those backing him.

Based on his complaint, the Triplicane police registered a case and arrested Thirunavukkarasu. Two others who allegedly worked behind the scenes, Naresh of Tiruchirappalli and Thiagarajan of Medavakkam, were also arrested.