Four more associates of conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar have been arrested by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing in connection with a case of cheating wherein a businessman’s wife was allegedly duped of Rs 200 crore. The four men were identified as Kamlesh Kothari, Joel Jose Matthews, Arun Muthu and B Mohan Raj. All of them are from Chennai but were arrested in Delhi on Sunday.
The development comes a day after actor Leena Maria Paul was arrested for allegedly helping her husband Chandrashekhar, an accused in 21 cases, in duping former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh’s wife Aditi Singh. The police have invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime (MCOCA) Act against the accused persons, a senior police officer said, adding that further investigation into the matter is underway.
With the fresh arrests, the total number of people arrested in connection with the case stands at 13 now, the police said. An FIR was registered on August 7 after Aditi Singh informed the police that a man posing as a senior official of the Law Ministry in June last year had offered to help her secure bail for her husband, who was in jail at that time, in return for money.
Shivinder Singh was arrested in a money laundering case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) in 2019. According to the police, Chandrasekhar had made the call to Aditi Singh and he was arrested in August.
At the time of the incident, Chandrasekhar was lodged in Delhi’s Rohini jail and was running an extortion racket from behind the bars, the police had said. On Monday, Paul and the four men were produced before a Delhi Court here following which they were sent to police custody for further investigation in the case.
A senior police officer said Kothari, who is a real estate agent, helped Chandrashekhar and his wife Paul in buying a bungalow in Chennai. Matthews is Paul’s manager, while Raj is a lawyer who used to handle Chandrashekhar’s cases, he said. The fourth associate — Muttu — allegedly helped Chandrashekhar and his wife in buying luxury vehicles.
The police told the court that Paul was also required to be taken to Mumbai and other states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala for recovery and verification of several properties purchased from the proceeds of crime. On Saturday, the court had sent Chandrashekhar to 16-day police remand in the case.
Earlier, the police had arrested Chandrashekhar’s two associates who operated for him from outside the prison along with two senior officials of Rohini jail. During the course of investigation, the police had found that a manager of a bank in Connaught Place and his two associates were involved in the dubious transactions for circulation of funds and arrangement of cash, and the three were subsequently arrested.
The police said Chandrasekhar’s associates revealed that they were helped by Rohini jail officials. “An assistant jail superintendent and the deputy superintendent of Rohini Jail were found involved in the racket and they have admitted to have helped the accused. The two jail officials were also arrested,” the police had said.
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