ED arrests conman Sukesh in fresh money laundering case

New Delhi: The ED on Thursday arrested conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar in a fresh money laundering case accusing him of duping the wife of former Religare promoter Malvinder Singh, similar to the case of cheating his brother Shivinder's wife Aditi Singh. A special court here has remanded Chandrasekhar to ED custody for nine days.

The conman was recently in news for writing multiple letters to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi accusing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers, including Satyendar Jain of threatening him and having extorted Rs 10 crore from him as 'protection money' while he was lodged in jail. He said he has known Jain since 2015 and had contributed Rs 50 crore to AAP on the promise of being given important positions in south India and also for nominating him to the Rajya Sabha.

In the alleged case of conning spouses of Malvinder and Shivinder, promising to 'arrange' bail for the two industrialist brothers who were in jail since 2019 in a fraud case, Chandrasekhar had spoofed calls pretending to be the Union home secretary and also the law secretary. The Singh brothers are accused in a fraud case related to the alleged misappropriation of funds in Religare Finvest Ltd.

In the present case, the ED wanted Chandrasekhar's custody to unearth the trail of Rs4 crore he had allegedly extorted from Malvinder's wife Japna Singh. This is ED's third money laundering case, which is based on an FIR registered by the economic offences wing of the Delhi Police. Japna Singh had allegedly paid Rs 3.5 crore in an overseas account in Hong Kong on the direction of the conman who also asked her to contribute to PM Cares.

In a similar manner, the conman had also cheated Shivinder's wife Aditi Singh. Once the extortion began, the accused threatened to harm Aditi Singh's children if the demand for ransom was not met. Between 2020 and 2021, she had already paid Rs 200 crore to the collection agents sent by the conman at her addresses over 30 times. Agency reports quoted Chandrasekhar's lawyer Anant Malik telling the court custodial interrogation of his client was not required as the case was registered in September 2021, and he had been called to unearth the money trail in the case at a "belated stage".

The money extorted from Aditi Singh went into acquiring luxury bungalows and cars by the conman and his partners. The ED has seized properties and vehicles totaling over Rs 20 crore, so far.