Monday, June 19, 2017

After RTI query, Election Commission orders FIR against Tamil Nadu CM Palaniswami, TTV Dinakaran

India Today: Tamil Nadu: Monday, June 19, 2017.
The Election Commission today ordered FIRs against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami, AIADMK (Amma) leaders TTV Dinakaran, Vijayabhaskar and others in RK Nagar bypoll bribery case.
The poll panel's decision to register cases against the AIADMK leaders including CM Palaniswami follows a Right to Information petition seeking to know what action was taken by the Election Commission in the bribery case.
The Election Commission had countermanded on April 9 the RK Nagar bypoll in Tamil Nadu scheduled for April 12 following allegations that the voters were being bribed by political parties.
INCOME TAX RAID PROVIDES CLUE
Based on the documents seized during the Income Tax Department's raids on Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar's properties in Chennai in early April, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had submitted a report to the Election Commission saying that around Rs 90 crore were set aside by the AIADMK to be distributed among the voters.
AIADMK's jailed general secretary VK Sasikala's nephew TTV Dinakaran was contesting from RK Nagar Assembly constituency.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who represented the constituency.
THE OTHER BRIBERY CASE
In another case of bribery, Dinakaran was arrested on April 26. Dinakaran was accused of trying to bribe Election Commission officials to get AIADMK's poll symbol - Two Leaves - for the Amma faction of the party.
Dinakaran was accused of giving money to middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar, who had been arrested on April 16. The Tees Hazari court of Delhi granted bail to TTV Dinakaran on June 5 in this case.
On June 14, the Delhi High Court dismissed the bail plea of Sukesh Chandrashekar. Justice S Muralidhar turned down Chandrashekar's bail application on the ground that the police had seized a fake Rajya Sabha member ID card from his possession which was a "serious threat on Parliament's security".
The EC had frozen the AIADMK's symbol after the two factions - one led by Dhinakaran's aunt Sasikala and the other by former chief minister O Panneerselvam - staked a claim to it.
Dhinakaran is facing the charge of arranging the money from undisclosed sources and getting it transferred from Chennai to Delhi through illegal channels.