The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has charge-sheeted the alleged high-profile conman, Sukesh Chandrasekhar, and an associate on the charges of extorting a huge amount of money from individuals who were accused in criminal cases by posing as senior government officials and promising them help in the investigation.
Sukesh, who is currently in judicial custody, was accused of committing the fraud while he was on judicial parole in 2019 by using spoofing techniques to impersonate senior officials of the Central law enforcement agencies.
In the charge-sheet filed in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chengalpattu, on Friday, the CBI said Sukesh and his associate, a resident of Punjabi Bagh in Delhi, had conspired to cheat by impersonation using digital devices.
Posing as a senior officer of the Central government, Sukesh made phone calls to various persons facing criminal cases investigated by different agencies.
It was alleged that he had extorted huge sums of money as bribes from them under the pretext of settling their cases and then cheated them. The New Delhi-based associate was in regular touch with him and handled his legal matters by arranging lawyers.
After the Income Tax Department raided the premises of different organisations and individuals, including an organisation having a major temple at Varadaiahpalem in Andhra Pradesh in October 2019, Sukesh allegedly contacted one of the persons handling the operations of the organisation, posing as the Law Secretary, Government of India, and demanded ₹7.5 crore.
When he made spoof calls to others, who were part of the organisation or its promoters, the numbers appeared to be those of senior bureaucrats of the Union government. However, the calls actually originated from abroad and in the process, he managed to collect ₹2 crore from a person in Mumbai.
The investigation of the case, registered by the District Crime Branch, Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu, on a complaint from another victim, was taken over by the CBI on the orders of the Supreme Court in March 2020.
