Sukesh case: Delhi LG allows probe against eight prison officials

An EOW officer, meanwhile, said that during the probe, all the accused jail officials were paid to ensure they remain silent

Lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Wednesday granted permission to the economic offence wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police to investigate the role of eight prison officials at Rohini jail in connection with the alleged criminal activities of Sukesh Chandrasekhar while he was behind bars.

Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena (PTI)

In the crosshairs of EOW are Sunil Kumar, Sunder Bora (both superintendents), Prakash Chand, Mahender Prasad Sundriyal, Subhaash Batra (all deputy superintendents), Dharam Singh Meena, Lakshmi Dutt, and Prakash Chand (all assistant superintendents).

Between 2020 and early 2021, Chandrasekhar allegedly pulled off a ₹200 crore heist by duping jailed industrialist Shivinder Mohan’s wife Aditi Singh, posing as the Union law secretary and calling her with an offer to bail her jailed husband. EOW in August 2021 arrested eight officials for allegedly helping Chandrashekhar with the heist.

“The jail officials will now face a probe under sections 7 and 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. EOW will probe their role in the connection with an organised crime syndicate run by Chandrashekhar from Rohini Jail,” an official at the LG secretariat said, declining to be named.

The LG secretariat official said that on the basis of the disclosure of the accused officials, video footage of various cameras at Rohini jail were collected and analysed, the duty roster of the eight officials was checked, and phone details were analysed.

“All of the evidence corroborated the accused’s disclosure. It was also found that these officials were deployed in Chandrasekhar’s barracks in consultation with him, so as to help him to carry out his criminal activities, for pecuniary gains,” he said.

An EOW officer, meanwhile, said that during the police investigation, it was learnt that all the accused jail officials were paid to ensure that they remain silent. “A separate barrack was exclusively provided to Chandrasekhar by these jail officials in gross violation of the jail manual, for pecuniary gains received through assistant superintendent Dharam Singh Meena on a regular basis,” he said, asking not to be named.

The LG secretariat official said the LG’s nod for EOW to probe the eight officers is in addition to the permission he granted last year to probe the role of 81 other prison officials under section 17A of the Act for allegedly providing phones and other facilities to Chandrasekhar in jail, in return for financial gain.

When contacted, Chandrasekhar’s counsel Anant Malik said more than two years have elapsed since the registration of the first information report (FIR) in the case, in which provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were invoked, and multiple charge sheets have been filed.

“Despite best efforts by the agencies, the key ingredients of MCOCA… are clearly missing from the charge sheets and the entire case is based on assumptions with respect to the existence of an organised crime syndicate. There exists no direct evidence pointing to the existence of any such syndicate as defined in the Act. While any investigation into the matter is a welcome move, what must be seen is whether the investigation will be carried out in a fair and transparent manner or will once again be an exercise based solely on assumptions,” Malik said.