The Delhi Crime Branch carried out raids in four locations in Chennai on Friday, including the office of a construction company at Adambakkam. The raids were held in connection with the bribery case involving AIADMK (Sasikala) Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran.
The raids that began on Friday morning were carried out on Girichand Construction Private Limited by the Delhi police. They came a day after the Delhi Crime Branch brought TTV Dhinakaran and his associate Mallikarjuna to Chennai. The police, led by Assistant Commissioner Sanjay Sherawat, had carried out searches at their residences on Thursday, even as their interrogation continued.
The Delhi Crime Branch are on a money trail in Chennai and Kochi, attempting to piece together who was involved in the transfer of Rs 10 crore fom Dhinakaran to middleman Sukesh Chandrasekhar. Police officials had on Thursday raided the Sukesh’s residence in Kochi as well.
Meanwhile, a hawala operator named Naresh was arrested in New Delhi for allegedly facilitating money laundering in this case. He was held at the Delhi airport upon his arrival from Thailand.
TTV Dhinakaran was arrested late on Tuesday night following days of interrogation in New Delhi. An FIR was registered against TTV on April 17 by the Delhi police for attempting to bribe officials of the Election Commission in order to get the frozen two-leaves symbol allotted to his faction.
The police had earlier arrested Sukesh Chandrasekhar, who had allegedly promised to bribe EC officials on behalf of TTV for a sum of Rs 50 crore. Sukesh was said to be in possession of Rs 1.3 crore at the time of his arrest from Hyatt hotel in Delhi.
TTV and Sukesh have been booked under various sections of the IPC including 120B (Criminal conspiracy), 170 (impersonating a public servant) and under Section 8 of The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.