4 MORE HELD FOR HELPING CONMAN OPERATE RACKET FROM TIHAR JAIL

A day after actor Leena Maria Paul was arrested for allegedly helping her husband, Sukesh Chandrashekhar, operate a multi-crore cheating and extortion racket from inside the Tihar prison complex, Delhi Police on Monday said they arrested four more Chennaibased associates of the couple, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 13.

The four arrested suspects -Kamlesh Kothari, Joel Jose Matthews, Arun Muthu, and B Mohan Raj -- and Paul were produced before a Delhi court that sent them to police custody on Monday. Paul will be in police custody for 15 days.

Police told the court that they need to take to Mumbai, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala for recovery and verification of several properties purchased from the proceeds of crime.

According to police, Kothari is a real-estate agent who helped the couple buy a bungalow in Chennai, Matthews is Paul’s manager and Muthu helped the couple buy luxury cars. Raj is a lawyer who has been representing Chandrashekhar in his cases, said a senior police officer in the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). Police recently also invoked stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against Chandrashekhar.

The arrests pertain to investigation into a complaint, alleging duping of several crores, filed by Aditi Singh, the wife of former promoter of Religare Enterprises Shivinder Singh, who was arrested in October 2019 for alleged misappropriation of funds. Chandrashekhar and his associates allegedly took money from her after posing as government officials promising to get bail for her husband.

Police suspect Chandrashekhar also allegedly duped the wife of Shivinder’s brother Malvinder Singh who is also currently in jail. It is not clear if a separate case was registered by the EOW in the matter.

Chandrashekhar, an alleged conman and an accused in 21 cases, is already in police custody since Saturday, when the court granted his custody to the EOW for 16 days.

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