Sukesh Chandrasekhar, a conman who is currently lodged in a Delhi jail in alleged criminal cases, is back in news after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday said that it has “seized” a luxurious sea-facing bungalow in Chennai, Rs 82.5 lakh cash and over a dozen luxury cars in connection with a money laundering case against him. Chandrashekar is an accused of running an extortion racket worth Rs 200 crore from inside the Tihar jail.
WHO’S Sukesh Chandrashekhar
Chandrasekhar is a native of Bengaluru in Karnataka and is believed to be in his late thirties. Aiming to lead a lavish lifestyle, he reportedly started conning people at the age of 17. After starting the forgery from Bengaluru, he moved to Chennai and in no time, he duped people in other metro cities of the country.
Chandrasekhar, who is also known by name Balaji duped people by promising them jobs. Posing as a relative of a politician, he, reportedly, have duped more than 100 people and cheated them to the tune of Rs 75 crore.
According to Asianet News, Chandrasekhar and his reported girlfriend Leena Maria Paul were arrested by police in 2011 for cheating Chennai-based Canara Bank. Both were later came out on bail. But Chandrasekhar didn’t mend his ways.
According to a report published in Indian Express, Kochi-based Emmanuel Silks MD TO Baiju had said that Chandrasekhar had promised him to bring actor Katrina Kaif for a promotional event and even took Rs 20 lakh from them. However, he brought Telugu actor Allu Arjun for the event in Kerala’s Kottayam. “He won our confidence and promised to bring in Katrina Kaif. But after sometime, he just vanished. Although, we had complained to the police, they could not track him down,” Indian Express had quoted Baiju as saying.
CASES AGAINST HIM
Chandrasekhar was lodged in Tihar jail after getting arrested in April, 2017 from a hotel in the infamous Election Commission (EC) bribery case. It was alleged that he took money from AIADMK (Amma) leader T T V Dhinakaran to bribe EC officials in connection with a dispute over the AIADMK “two leaves” poll symbol.
Chandrasekhar had allegedly struck a deal for Rs 50 crore to help the AIADMK (Amma) faction keep the “two leaves” symbol. An amount of Rs 1.3 crore was allegedly seized from his possession at the time of his arrest.
When he was lodged in Tihar jail, the reports emerged that he ran an extortion racket of several crores despite being behind the bars.
After coming out on bail, he started duping high-profile people again by posing as a relative of political leaders and a Supreme Court judge. He was accused in several criminal cases, including extortion across the country.
HOW EXTORTION RACKET WAS BUSTED
Quoting the ED source, IANS reported that the fresh case is based on the complaint of Aditi S Singh, the wife of former Fortis promoter Shivinder Singh, who alleged that she was cheated to the tune of Rs 200 crore by a caller posing as an official of the Ministry of Law for securing bail for her husband.
The Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has registered a case based on the complaint of Aditi S Singh.
EOW Additional Commissioner RK Singh said, “The special Cell of Delhi Police received a complaint from Aditi Singh on August 7 in which she mentioned that she received a call in June 2020 in which the caller introduced himself as a senior officer in the Ministry of Law and proposed to help her in securing bail for her husband.”
He said that in the complaint, it was mentioned that the caller demanded money for getting the work done and conveyed the modalities regarding delivery of money to Aditi Singh.
The officer said, “Therefore, an enquiry was conducted in which it was established that Sukash Chandrasekhar aka Sukesh is the mastermind behind this offence.”
The Delhi Police had arrested Pradeep Ramdanee and Deepak Ramnani in connection with the case on August 7 and 8, respectively.
According to the police, during their interrogation, it was revealed that Chandrasekhar was running an extortion racket by using mobile phones from inside the jail.
“Chandrasekhar spoofed the landline numbers of the ministry to make the victim believe that the phone was received from the ministry,” the Delhi Police had said on August 19.
The police had claimed that Ramnani revealed the identity of the jail officials as well as the vehicles used by them to collect the money.
“Based on the disclosure of Ramnani, Dharam Singh Meena, Assistant Jail Superintendent, and Subhash Batra, Deputy Superintendent, were found involved in the racket and they have admitted to have helped and facilitated the accused Shekar in lieu of illegal gratification,” the police said.
“During the probe, it has also been found that Komal Poddar, Manager of RBL Bank at Connaught Place, along with two of his associates, Avinash Kumar and Jitender Narula, were involved in the dubious transactions for circulation of funds and arrangement of cash,” the police said.
The police have arrested Poddar, Kumar and Narula.
(with inputs from agencies)
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