A court in New Delhi on Thursday extended till November 9 the judicial custody of Sukesh Chandrashekhar, a middleman of AIADMK's sacked Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran, in a bribery case related to poll symbol allocation by the Election Commission.
Special Judge Poonam Chaudhary also asked the Investigating Officer to appear in court on the next hearing on November 9 to explain the status of supplementary chargesheet in the case.
The Delhi Police charge-sheeted Chandrashekhar on July 14 for forgery, making a false document and criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Chandrashekhar was arrested on April 16. The police had said a separate investigation report would be filed against Dhinakaran and other accused later.
Dhinakaran, accused of trying to bribe Election Commission officials to get the "two leaves" poll symbol for the AIADMK faction led by his now jailed aunt VK Sasikala, was arrested on April 25. He was granted bail on June 1.
The police said a criminal conspiracy was hatched by Chandrashekhar, Dhinakaran and others to bribe Election Commission officials.
The money seized from Chandrashekhar was sent by Dhinakaran through illegal channels with the help of others, the police alleged.
Mallikarjuna, a long-time friend of Dhinakaran, and Naresh Jain, a "hawala" operator from Delhi, are the other accused in the case.
Earlier, in the chargesheet filed against Sukesh, the Delhi Police said that there is clear evidence of a “criminal conspiracy” between TTV and accused Sukesh Chandrasekhar in relation to the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol.
The chargesheet submitted on July 14 said witness statements, and compact disc recordings of conversations between Sukesh and TTV showed that they were discussing the matter of ‘Two Leaves’ symbol when it was pending before the Election Commission.
“These facts clearly show that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by accused Sukesh Chandrasekhar and Mr TTV Dhinakaran and other accused persons were got associated to execute the plan to bribe officials of the ECI in order to get a favourable order in the matter pending adjudication regarding the “Two leaves” symbol (sic),” the charge sheet states.
“It also indicates that the money recovered from accused Sukesh Chandrasekhar was sent by accused TTV Dhinakaran through unaccounted channels with the help of other accused persons,” the charge sheet also states.