Sukesh Chandrashekhar shifted from Tihar over claim of ‘threat to life’
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed the extortion amount Chandrashekhar alleged was paid as bribes to win over jailers at Tihar who have since been suspended.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday shifted conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar and his wife from Tihar Jail to Delhi’s Mandoli jail and decided not to deal with his allegation of extortion against jail officials, as it noted the matter ought to be left to the concerned authorities to handle.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed the extortion amount Chandrashekhar alleged was paid as bribes to win over jailers at Tihar who have since been suspended.
“We have not consciously gone into the allegations made by the petitioner as no clap occurs unless there are two hands,” the bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia said.
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Additional solicitor general SV Raju, appearing for ED, opposed Sukesh’s transfer from Tihar.
Following revelations of a hefty bribe paid by Chandrashekhar to jail authorities, work on suspending and transferring around 80 officials has been started, he said.
Since then, Chandrashekhar found it difficult to continue with extortion and cheating from jail, and the allegations he levelled were a ploy to move to another prison to implement his plans.
The bench asked Raju, “Who is at fault,” finding the jail officials to be equally guilty. Raju said that Chandrashekhar, who is wanted in several crimes across many states, impersonated top ministerial officials and carried out a ₹215 crore heist by extorting it in tranches from Aditi Singh, promising to get her husband, former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh, released on bail.
“We are afraid if he still indulges in such activity from another jail, it will be unfortunate. The facts of what he has done in jail are gross and glaring. The jail officials were on his payroll, allowing him uninterrupted use of cellphone inside the jail to pass documents and information to his associates outside jail,” Raju said.
“Have you registered any FIR on whatever he did in jail? When we asked you about this you had no answer,” the bench told the ED.
As the issue of bribe exchanging hands is already a matter of investigation by the ED in the ₹215 crore extortion case, the bench in its order said, “It appears that the respondent (ED) has taken action against several jail officials and staff. Whether this bears out the petitioner’s allegation (of extortion) or proves the ED allegation (of bribery) is not for this Court to investigate. It is best left to the concerned authorities to do so.”
As the ED appearing in the matter had on an earlier occasion agreed to shift him to Mandoli jail located within Delhi and which is manned by central security forces, the bench ordered both Chandrashekhar and his wife Leena Paulose to be shifted to Mandoli prison within a week.
Raju remarked, “His letters (sent from jail to associates) read like a crime novel,” to which the bench said, “We are sure he will make money out of that.”
The order came despite Chandrashekhar having filed an affidavit before the court, refusing to be shifted to Mandoli. According to his lawyers, advocates R Basant and Ashok Singh, he was being tortured at Tihar since he revealed the extortion racket in jail.
Basant told the court that if he is shifted to jail within Delhi, the same officer would exercise his control and authority to inflict similar harm to him. For this reason, he requested the court to shift him to any jail in the national capital region, or even as distant as Port Blair.
But the bench asked Basant, “Prima facie we see no reason to transfer you. You may be extorting or somebody else may be extorting. That is perhaps you have lots of money. You do not dispute that you have paid over ₹12 crore. But where is the perceptible threat that you face?”