EC bribery case: HC seeks cops’ reply on Sukesh’s plea against charges

Justice A K Pathak issued notice to the police and sought its stand on Chandrasekar’s petition for quashing the charges framed against him on November 17 by the trial court.

The lower court had framed charges of forgery, cheating, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence under the IPC and for taking gratification for influencing a public servant under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, against Chandrasekar, alleged to be a middleman in the case.

The CBI court had also put on trial former AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran, his aide T P Mallikarjun and one B Kumar for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence under the IPC and taking gratification for influencing a public servant under the PC Act. Of the four, Dhinakaran is yet to challenge the lower court’s order. Trial in the case is scheduled to commence from December 17.

Dhinakaran, who floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam party after being expelled from the AIADMK, was arrested in April 2017 here and later granted bail.

In 2017, the Delhi Police’s crime branch had filed a charge sheet alleging that Chandrasekar had conspired with Dhinakaran and others to bribe poll panel officials to get the two leaves symbol for Sasikala-led AIADMK faction Dhinakaran won the by-elections held in Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in December last year under the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol with a margin of over 40,000 votes.