The Supreme Court has directed conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar and his wife to list the names of Tihar Jail officials he bribed and also to mention through whom he made the payments within 10 days.
The bench of Justice U.U. Lalit, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said they will go to the root of this matter. The next hearing in the matter will be on July 26. The bench was hearing the plea by Chandrasekhar and his wife Leena Maria Paul seeking their transfer from Tihar Jail in the capital to any other prison.
During the hearing, Chandrasekhar and his wife’s counsel Senior Advocate R. Basant submitted that jail authorities are threatening him. The Delhi government has also admitted that bribes were taken from him.
Basant said that FIRs have been lodged against us in many states. We can also be sent to Bangalore Jail. The Senior Advocate also said that Chandrasekhar’s elderly widowed mother was also in the KArnataka capital.
Justice Lalit asked the government about the facilities which were granted to Chandrasekhar in Tihar. The judge also wanted to know how the conman was communicating.
In response, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju said that Chandrasekhar was keeping in touch with the outside world through a mobile phone which he accessed with the help of jail staff. For this, he had given a huge amount as bribe.
ASG Raju said Chandrasekhar has also cheated in the name of Supreme Court judges. He hasn’t spared anyone and was running his racket uninterrupted. Due to the opening of the case, a large number of the prison staff has been suspended. Now with no slackening of the rigour accorded to him, he wants to go to another jail and run his extortion business from there.
The Court asked the ASG when did they first complain about the threat? The ASG said they had complained first to the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies and then approached the Supreme Court. The court again asked when did you complain against extortion, Basant replied the complaint was made on March 7 this year.
The Court then wanted to know how much money he had collected. Basant said Chandrasekhar had already collected Rs 12.5 crore.
Expressing surprise, the court said the jail personnel had been involved in the racket with Chandrasekhar and were on his payroll and it took more than two years for the investigating agency to unearth this racket.
Basant said more than Rs 12 crore was cheated from him. The Court then asked both of you were in jail, then who and how did you get cheated of so much money? Basant said Chandrasekhar used to send money through the people who used to come to meet him.
The Court said you were running your criminal syndicate on the pretext of meeting.
The bench then asked Basant to reveal the names of the people through whom the deal was done and money routed.