Karnataka Home Minister's close aide under Delhi Police scanner

The Delhi Police will be probing the role of a purported aide of Karnataka's Home Minister in connection with an alleged attempt by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma) leader T T V Dhinakaran to bribe Election Commission officials.

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police, investigating the case, had issued a lookout notice for V C Prakash, who was the deputy chairman of the NRI Forum Karnataka.

Sources claim that Prakash is a close aide of G Parameshwar who is the Home Minister in the Karnataka government.

Prakash is also a friend of Mallikarjuna, who was arrested along with Dhinakaran on April 25.

It is suspected that Prakash had helped Mallikarjuna in the money transfer through Hawala route, said police.

He has already been questioned once and is likely to be grilled again on Friday.

"It was suspected that he might escape from here and that is why a lookout notice was issued. His statement has been recorded once and he will be questioned again this week," said the officer.

Dhinakaran was arrested on the night of April 25 after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe an unidentified EC official to get the undivided AIADMK's 'two leaves' election symbol for his faction for a by-election to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu.

The by-election was later cancelled by the poll watchdog.

The EC had frozen AIADMK's 'two leaves' symbol after two factions, one led by Sasikala and the other by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, staked claim to it.

Dhinakaran, the deputy general secretary of the AIADMK Amma faction, has been accused of allegedly arranging the amount from undisclosed sources and getting it transferred from Chennai to Delhi through illegal channels.

His name had surfaced after police arrested an alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrasekar, who had allegedly told Dhinakaran that he had contacts in the EC and would help his faction get the election symbol.

Meanwhile, Dhinakaran on Wednesday moved a special court seeking bail in the attempted bribery case. Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry listed his bail plea for hearing on Thursday.