SC orders shifting of conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, his wife to Mandoli jail

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the relocation of alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar and his wife Leena Paulose to Mandoli jail in the city from Tihar jail.

A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia ordered to shift Chandrashekhar and his wife to Mandoli jail within one week.

"Having considered the materials on the record and also having regard to the order made on June 17, 2022, this court is of the opinion that in terms of the statement made by the respondent on June 23, 2022, the petitioners should be shifted to Mandoli jail. It is accordingly ordered," the apex court said in its order.

Chandrashekhar, lodged in Tihar jail on charges of money laundering and duping several persons, had moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer from Tihar Jail to any other prison claiming a threat to his life in the prison.

Earlier, the apex court had asked Chandrashekhar to provide it with the names of Tihar jail officials to whom payment of 12.5 crores was made on his behalf along with payment details. It had asked him to give the names of people who made the payment on his behalf and who took the money.

The bench had said it will go into the root of the matter of whether Chandrasekhar was a victim of extortion in jail or he was bribing jail officials to run his syndicate or extortion racket from Tihar jail.

Senior advocate R Basant appearing for Chandrashekhar had told the apex court that his client continuously faces threats to his life from the jail staff and protection money was being sought from him. He had alleged that the Tihar prison authorities have extorted around Rs 12.5 crore from him in the last two years.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) had said that while inside Tihar jail he was running a crime syndicate, paying Rs 1.5 crores every month for facilities like using phones to pass messages to persons from his syndicate and some jail officials were on his monthly payroll.

It had said charges against him were serious and he impersonated judges and government officials and conned people of hundreds of crores from jail.

Meanwhile, ED had told the top court that Chandrashekhar indulged in money laundering, extortion, and impersonation of public officials including those holding constitutional posts.

He is charged with many multi-crore fraud cases and is also accused of extorting Rs 200 crore from the family of former Fortis Healthcare and Ranbaxy Lab promoters Shivinder and Malvinder Singh from the premises of the prison.

Chandrashekhar was also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the 2017 Election Commission bribery instance allegedly involving former AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran and others.

A number of women Bollywood actors and models have been questioned by the ED for their alleged links to Chandrashekhar.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor