Two leaves symbol bribery case: Matter adjourned till 26th July

New Delhi: The Delhi High court on Monday has adjourned the hearing against former AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran in a case of allegedly bribing Election Commission officials to get the 'two leaves' symbol assigned to his party.

Interim orders for a stay in the trial proceedings will continue till further hearing on 26 July. The case was heard by Justice A.K. Pathak today.

More time was sought by the petitioners for arguments on the last date of hearing. On March 20, the court had adjourned another plea which required Dhinakaran to provide voice samples to the Delhi Police by April 30.

Dhinakaran had pleaded through an application for quashing of the trial court's order dated 4 December, 2018. The Patiala House court had framed charges for the alleged offences punishable under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and under Section 8 (taking gratification by corrupt or illegal means to influence a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, PTI reported.

The Delhi Police had filed a chargesheet against nine persons, including Dhinakaran. He is on bail while middleman Suresh Chandrasekhar is in judicial custody. Dhinakaran, who was arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch in April 2017, had sought bail on the grounds that there was no reason to keep him in custody and no public servant was made an accused in the case, though he was booked for graft.

His plea was opposed by the police, which said he had conspired with others to undermine the sanctity of the electoral process.

The ousted leader had won a bye-election in Jayalalithaa’s Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai in 2017 on a “pressure cooker” symbol.