Chennai: TTV Dhinakaran, the head of the MMK, was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the second consecutive time on Friday in connection with a money laundering case involving the alleged bribery of Election Commission officials to obtain the AIADMK's 'two leaves' insignia for the V K Sasikala faction, officials said.
As per reports, the agency will continue to record his statement in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Dhinakaran was interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate for the first time on April 12 at its office in Chennai for roughly eight hours.
Last week, he received a new summons from the agency. The notice and inquiry against the 58-year-old Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) leader came after the agency recently detained Sukesh Chandrashekhar, an imprisoned 'conman' and another accused in this case.
On April 12, when he walked out of the ED headquarters late at night, Dhinakaran told reporters that he worked with the agency and answered their inquiries about the Sukesh Chandrashekhar case. The agency questioned Chandrashekhar in the case over the last week.
The ED case is predicated on a main FIR filed against the accused by the Delhi Police Crime Branch in 2017 under the criminal provisions of the PMLA.
The Crime Branch detained both Dhinakaran and Chandrashekhar at the time. Officials claimed they recorded Chandrashekhar's statement in this matter earlier this month and now want to question Dhinakaran and confront him with Chandrashekhar in order to move the investigation further.
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