Even as a revolt is brewing against him in his party – AIADMK (Amma) – TTV Dinakaran had another missile fired at him from Delhi in the form of a bribery charge by the Delhi Crime Branch.
In an FIR the crime branch alleged that Dinakaran had attempted to pay a bribe of Rs.50 crores to officials of the Election Commission through an agent called Sukesh Chandrasekar.
The police further claimed that Sukesh, the middle man who it raided and arrested from a Delhi hotel, was found with 1.5 crores, which was allegedly part of the bribe money. They also reportedly seized a BMW and Mercedes car, part of the payment to carry out the job, according to Sukesh. The police claim that they had recordings of phone conversations between Sukesh and Dinakaran.
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A team of Delhi police is arriving in Chennai on Tuesday to serve summons to Dinakaran. He is likely to be arrested.
The police said there was no evidence yet to indict EC officials. Dinakaran has been charged with conspiracy and corruption and he has been summoned to appear before the Delhi police. The arrest and the announcement by the Delhi police came just as the EC was getting ready to hear the two factions over their claim to the “Two Leaves” symbol after the deadline to submit all supporting evidence expired today. The Dinakaran camp has sought four more weeks to present its documents while the OPS faction has urged the EC to come up with an early hearing and decision.
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Dinakaran flatly refuted the charge and claimed that he did not know any Sukesh Chandrasekar nor had he ever spoken to him. “I have only been talking to our lawyers about the symbol case and no one else. If the Delhi police sends me summons I will face it legally,” he told reporters at Chennai before leaving for Bangalore to meet his aunt Sasikala at the prison there. Dinakaran further said that there appeared to be a conspiracy to undermine the AIADMK.
Dinakaran also denied that some senior Ministers had revolted against his leadership after he had refused to drop Health Minister Vijaya Baskar from the cabinet following the IT raids on him which led to the cancellation of the R.K. Nagar byelection in which Dinakaran was a candidate. IT officials had found documents showing that the Minister had distributed Rs.89 crores through the state Ministers to reach the voters in what was seen as an organized “cash for votes” scam.
At least half a dozen senior Ministers met Dinakaran on Friday and urged him to step down to enable the two factions to reunite in the larger interests of the party and the state. But Dinakaran had reportedly threatened that he would break the party with forty odd loyal MLAs and form a government with the DMK which has 89 MLAs. The Ministers have asked him to decide by Wednesday, which is probably one reason why he has rushed to Bangalore to consult his aunt Sasikala.
The Modi government has asked O. Panneerselvam to hasten the unification process and has promised to impose president’s rule and suspend the Assembly briefly to prevent the DMK and Dinakaran coming together and form an alternative government.
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The bribery charge appears to be a well timed to move to further weaken Dinakaran’s position within the AIADMK and imprint the image that his politics revolved around bribery.
“First he bribed the MLAs to rally behind him, then the voters of RK Nagar to buy their votes and now he has attempted to bribe the EC to get a favoruable verdict. The AIADMK (Amma) and its cadres should outright reject Dinakaran and his family and help reunited the real followers of Amma,” said K. Panidarajan, former Minister and a key leader of the OPS faction.
