
A Delhi court Thursday granted bail to AIADMK leader T T V Dinakaran and his aide Mallikarjuna in the Election Commission (EC) bribery case.
Special Judge Poonam Chaudhary wrote in her order that “an offence of conspiracy cannot be deemed to be established on mere suspicion or inferences, it has to be proved beyond cogent and admissible evidence.”
The judge said the accused have been charged under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, while the EC staff they allegedly tried to bribe has remained unidentified.
The court asked Dinakaran and Mallikarjuna to furnish a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh each and two sureties of the like amount. They have also been restrained from leaving the country without permission of the court.
Dinakaran is accused of allegedly trying to bribe an EC official to get AIADMK’s ‘two leaves’ election symbol for the bypoll to the R K Nagar Assembly seat.
Alleged middleman in the case Sukesh Chandrashekar and alleged hawala operator Nathu Singh are in judicial custody till June 12. Co-accused Lalit Kumar, also alleged to be a hawala operator, is in judicial custody till June 5.