Extortion from jail: Jailers involved now arrested, say cops

New Delhi: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police on Thursday said Tihar jail officials were allegedly helping high profile conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar to run a cheating racket from prison, which was discovered after the wife of multi-crore-fraud accused Shivinder Singh received a call offering to "settle" her husband's cases through contacts in the Law Ministry.

Police said they were probing a cheating case registered on the complaint of Aditi Singh, wife of the erstwhile promoter of Religare Enterprises Shivender Singh.

"The complainant told us that she received a phone call in June 2020, in which the caller introduced himself as a senior officer posted in the Ministry of Law and proposed to help her in securing bail for her husband who is currently behind bars," the official said.

Police said the caller demanded money for getting the work done and conveyed the modalities regarding the delivery of money to Singh. Police followed the case to Sukesh Chandra Shekhar.

Additional Commissioner of Police (EOW) RK Singh said during the probe they arrested Pradeep Ramdanee and Deepak Ramnani on August 7 and 8. "Both of them were working for Sukesh and they came to the spot to collect the money," the official said.

Their interrogation confirmed Sukesh was the mastermind of the criminal syndicate.

"Sukesh, who was using mobile phones, has spoofed the landline numbers of the Ministry to make the victim believe that he is a government official," an investigator said. Therefore, Sukesh was arrested and mobile phones used in crime were recovered.

"The interrogation of Ramnani revealed that the accused was being facilitated by jail officials in lieu of money from the accused," the official said.

"Dharam Singh Meena (Assistant Jail Superintendent) and Subhash Batra (Deputy Superintendent), were found involved in the racket and they have admitted to their roles," the official said.

It was also found that Komal Poddar, manager at RBL Bank along with two of his associates Avinash Kumar and Jitender Narula were involved in the dubious transactions for circulation of funds and arrangement of cash. Sukesh was lodged in Tihar jail after getting arrested in April 2017 from a hotel in the EC bribery case.