Conman Sukesh lying about assault in Tihar: Delhi prison DG to Supreme Court | Latest News Delhi - Hindustan Times
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Conman Sukesh lying about assault in Tihar: Delhi prison DG to Supreme Court

ByAbraham Thomas
Jun 22, 2022 03:38 AM IST

The Delhi Prisons Director General (DG) told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar is guilty of perjury for “suppressing truth and creating a falsehood” that he was assaulted inside Tihar Jail, a reason cited by him to seek transfer to any other jail in the country

The Delhi Prisons Director General (DG) told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar is guilty of perjury for “suppressing truth and creating a falsehood” that he was assaulted inside Tihar Jail, a reason cited by him to seek transfer to any other jail in the country.

The Supreme Court of India (HT PHOTO.)
The Supreme Court of India (HT PHOTO.)

With Chandrashekhar being probed for bribing jail officials at Tihar Jail and Rohini jail to get special facility of an office and mobile phone, the affidavit filed by DG (Prisons) Sandeep Goel on Tuesday denied any assault on the petitioner inside jail and dismissed the allegation as a deliberate attempt to mislead the court.

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The affidavit produced a copy of the hospital record where the examining doctor recorded that the petitioner had no external injury. However, this part of the report was not produced by him in his petition for seeking transfer out of Tihar.

Faced with an order by the top court on May 17 directing his transfer to another jail, the affidavit said, “The petitioner is committing falsehood to manufacture reasons to shift out of Tihar Jail. The conduct of the petitioner in distorting and obfuscating documents while filing them before this Court is itself a serious offence making the petitioner guilty of the offence of perjury.”

It produced the medico legal case (MLC) documents which showed that the petitioner was referred from jail to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital on May 14, the day he alleged that an officer of the jail twisted his arm and threatened him from withdrawing his complaint accusing the Director General, Prisons of providing undue favours to him inside jail. In his petition, Chandrashekhar claimed that he even wrote a letter to the jail authorities on May 17 apprising them of this incident.

The affidavit said that the letter of May 17 now produced by the petitioner in the Court was never received by the jail authorities indicative of the fact that the entire story was an “afterthought” after he met his lawyer on May 17. Further, the petitioner’s MLC report stated, “no fresh external injury is seen at the time of examination.”

With this part of the report missing in the petition, the affidavit said, “The petitioner has deliberately omitted the relevant part of MLC report which records that local examination by examining doctor….this omission is deliberate to mislead the Court and is an attempt to play fraud on this Court.” This has been done to create falsehood and obfuscate truth to justify his prayer for transfer to another jail.

The affidavit was taken up by a vacation bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia on Tuesday as it sought a response from Chandrashekhar’s lawyers on the allegations contained in the DG, Prisons’ affidavit. However, the Court had to adjourn the matter to Thursday as senior advocate R Basant appearing for the petitioner faced connectivity issues while appearing through videoconferencing.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who had on Monday appeared for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) presented the affidavit by Tihar Jail before the top court claiming that the order of May 17 passed by the top court should be modified as the ED believes that the petitioner is manufacturing reason to be shifted out of Tihar for him to continue his misdemeanours in other jail.

Mehta said, “He cannot be tortured as the investigations revealed that he had models called in jail for him. They visited him surreptitiously inside jail with help from jail officials. But now the staff is changed.” Solicitor general further informed the Court that action has been taken against the erring jail officials and a guard from the Tamil Nadu special police force has been posted round the clock for ruling out any possibility of breach of security inside jail. Besides, the ward and cell where the petitioner is lodged has been put under surveillance of CCTVs.

The bench told Mehta, “If we enter into the contentions, it means we are entering into the order passed by the earlier bench on May 17. Virtually, we are reviewing the order. Being a bench of co-equal strength (as the other bench also comprised of two judges), we should not be doing that. We may not pass any order on the transfer of the person from the jail. This matter can be posted after vacations before an appropriate bench.”

Before doing that, the Court wished to hear the arguments by Basant and asked Mehta to keep ready the names of alternate jails for shifting Chandrashekhar, as ordered by the top court on May 17.

Chandrashekhar, who is facing multiple cases of cheating, extortion, attempt to murder in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, had extorted a sum of 215 crore from the wife of jailed former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh by impersonating as union home secretary while in jail and collecting the amount from her using associates who transferred the money to safe havens outside the country. According to ED, which is probing the money trail, the amounts collected were used by Chandrashekhar to buy expensive cars, property, expensive gifts and pay bribes to jail officials for allowing him carry out his criminal activities unhindered from inside jail.

As on date, 34 cases are pending against Chandrashekhar with the bulk pending trial before Delhi courts. Chandrashekhar is lodged at Tihar Jail from April 2017 till date except for a brief spell when he was moved to Rohini jail from July 2020 to September 2021. His wife Leena Paulose is also a co-accused in his criminal activities and is also lodged at Tihar Jail.

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