The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested two aides of conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar, who is accused of running an extortion racket while he was lodged in Rohini jail in Delhi, said sources.
The arrested accused are reportedly among those four Chennai-based associates of Chandrasekhar and his actor wife Leena Maria Paul. They were arrested by Delhi Police last month. The Delhi Police has so far arrested 13 people in connection with the case.
The four held by Delhi Police were identified as Kamlesh Kothari, Joel Jose Matthews, Arun Muthu and B Mohan Raj.
Kothari is a real estate agent who helped the couple buy a bungalow in Chennai while Matthews is Paul's manager. Muthu helped the couple buy luxury cars.
Raj is a lawyer by profession and has been representing Chandrashekhar in his cases for a long time, said a senior police officer in the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), which is probing the cheating and extortion case.
Police recently also invoked stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Chandrashekhar and the others.
Chandrashekhar, an alleged conman and an accused in 21 cases, is lodged in Tihar jail. He was sent to judicial custody by a Delhi court in September.
Chandrashekhar was allegedly running the cheating and extortion racket in connivance with jail officials and some associates outside.
He was arrested by the EOW of Delhi Police for allegedly extorting Rs 200 crore from a businessman's wife by impersonating a central government official over a spoof call while he was lodged in Rohini jail.
The arrests pertain to the investigation into a complaint, alleging duping of several crores, filed by Aditi Singh, the wife of the former promoter of Religare Enterprises Shivinder Mohan Singh, who was arrested in October 2019 in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd. Chandrashekhar and his associates reportedly took money from her after posing as government officials and promising to get bail for her husband.
ED filed a case of money laundering on the basis of an FIR filed by Delhi Police. The ED suspects that Chandrasekhar had extorted money from several people while he was in jail.
ED officials had recently conducted raids at Chandrashekhar's sea-facing bungalow in Chennai and had found a fleet of 16 luxury cars worth crores of rupees.
Two Bollywood actors, including Jacqueline Fernandez, have also been questioned by the ED for their alleged association with Chandrasekhar.
( With inputs from ANI )
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