CHENNAI: Triplicane police have arrested one more person on Sunday in connection with the alleged Rs 35-crore bribery bid and intimidation targeting Uthangarai TVK MLA N Ilaiyaraja. With this, the total number of arrests in this case has climbed up to nine.
According to police, the arrested man was identified as Krishnan (33). He was working as the driver for one of the accused, Thirunavukkarasu (45), who was arrested on Wednesday along with two others, Naresh (40) and Thiyagarajan (40).
The following day, police arrested five more persons, and included the names of ex-minister V Senthil Balaji and his brother V Ashok Kumar. On Saturday, police issued summons to the two of them at their residence in Karur and asked them to appear for an inquiry on Monday.
As per the complaint, Thirunavukkarasu approached Ilaiyaraja in June, claiming to represent a survey firm named Indian Political Democratic Strategies (IPDS), and allegedly offered him `35 crore to support a proposed no-confidence move against Assembly Speaker J C D Prabhakar, police said. After the MLA refused, he allegedly issued threats.
Police added that the probe revealed that Thirunavukkarasu acted with Naresh and Thiyagarajan on the instructions of Senthil Balaji and Ashok Kumar. Investigators also alleged that meetings were held in ECR and Guindy to mobilise support from TVK MLAs.