PROMOTERS OF UNITECH SHIFTED TO 2 MUMBAI JAILS

NEW DELHI: Former Unitech promoters Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra have been shifted from the Tihar Jail to Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail and Taloja Central Jail following a Supreme Court order, officials said on Sunday.

Director general (prisons) Sandeep Goel confirmed that the brothers were shifted on Saturday.

“Sanjay and Ajay Chandra were both taken under police escort to Mumbai by train on Saturday morning. They reached Mumbai and were lodged in the jails there in the early hours of Sunday,” Goel said.

On Thursday, a Supreme Court bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah had said that two reports of the Enforcement Directorate, on the conduct of Sanjay and Ajay and the connivance of Tihar Jail staff in flouting orders and undermining the jurisdiction of the court, have raised some “serious and disturbing” issues.

“In the circumstances, we order and direct that both the accused, Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra, be shifted from Tihar Central Jail to the premises of Arthur Road Jail, Mumbai, and Taloja Central Jail, Mumbai, respectively,” the bench said in its 27-page order.

It directed the Delhi Police commissioner to personally hold an inquiry into the conduct of Tihar Jail staff with regard to the Chandras and submit a report to the court within four weeks.

“In this backdrop, we are of the view that the Commissioner of Police must make an immediate enquiry into the contents of the communication...by the ED,” the bench said.

The Chandra brothers were arrested in 2017 for duping over 500 homebuyers.