Conman Sukesh posed as judge to trap TTV Dhinakaran

New Delhi: After denying any link with middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar, AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran on Monday admitted that he knows Chandrasekar. The fresh development came after two days of rigorous questioning of the leader by the Delhi police. 

The Delhi police grilled Mr Dhinakaran for more than eight hours everyday last three days. 

On the third day of the questioning, Mr Dhinakaran purportedly told the police that he had, in fact, met Sukesh only once. In that meeting, said a police officer, Sukesh allegedly posed as a high court judge. 

Mr Dhinakaran was under the assumption that Sukesh was a high court judge who could help him influence Election Commission officials to win the party’s “two leaves” symbol. “We are connecting the dots in statement given by Dhinakaran and Chandrasekar. We are also questioning them to find out trail of money that was recovered from Chandrasekar,” said a senior police official.

“We have been interrogating Dhinakaran since April 22 when he arrived here. In the past couple of days we confronted the duo. Both of them had contradictory versions about knowing each other,” said the officer.   

The duo have been booked for attempting to bribe EC officials to get a favourable verdict on “two leaves” symbol on which Mr Dhinakaran wanted to contest the now cancelled R.K. Nagar bypoll, the seat once held by former AIADMK stalwarts J. Jaylalithaa and M.G. Ramachandran.

A common link between the two has also emerged as both had hired the same lawyer for dealing with their cases, said the officer. In the past, Mr Dhinakaran had said that he did not know who Chandrashekhar was, something he maintained even after arriving at the capital for joining the investigations. 

Asked if the call details on any electronic evidence has shown that the two had been constantly in touch, the officer said most of the conversations were via WhatsApp calls which even the forensic tests might not help them retrieve. 

“We have sent mobile phones of Chandrasekar for forensic examination to find out any clue,” said an official.

Apart from the duo, the police has so far questioned 15 people in connection with the case. They have also written to the ECI for an explainer as far as the process of deciding the symbols in the factional battle was concerned, the reply for which is still awaited.

The officer also said that they might ask for an extension of Sukesh’s custody which expires on Tuesday they are more to be find out in the case. Of these, the money trail, of the Rs. 10 crore allegedly given to Sukesh are also being probed as are his claims of the final amount for getting the symbol being Rs. 50 crore. So far Rs. 1.3 crore have been recovered which Sukesh claims was transported via cars from Chennai to Delhi.

Asked if some of the money paid to him had already made its way to ECI officials whom he claimed to know, the officer said no evidence has come to suggest the same.

Till the report was filed Dinakaran was being interrogated. A Special Investigating Team (SIT) is now probing the case.