Sukesh Chandrasekhar, the youth arrested by the Delhi Police on charges of acting as a conduit to AIADMK (Amma) leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran in an alleged attempt to bribe the Election Commission, is no stranger to the spotlight.
Starting as a juvenile white-collar criminal at 17, he has been in and out of jail in the past decade but has never been shy of trying his tricks on a new unsuspecting victim.
Several aliases
The 27-year-old, who goes under several aliases, has a silver tongue with which he has effortlessly cheated numerous people including officials of a nationalised bank in Chennai, to lead a luxurious life driving around in posh cars and wearing bespoke clothes.
For a few years he had teamed up with his girlfriend and actress Leena Maria Paul, the leading lady in the John Abraham-starrer Madras Café and Malayalam superstar Mohanlal’s heroine in Red Chillies , to dupe people.
When it all started
A native of Bengaluru, Sukesh’s first brush with the law was in August 2007 when he was arrested on charges of cheating a senior citizen of ₹1.4 crore in Bengaluru by impersonating a friend of Nikil Gowda, the son of former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
He had promised to help the senior citizen bag a land deal.
In 2011, the Bengaluru police arrested him from Chennai for posing as DMK leader M. Karunanidhi’s grandson and cheating people from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu after promising to secure them government jobs.
He was arrested by the Chennai police too for promising victims that he would help them buy luxury cars in auctions at cheap prices.
“A polyglot, he speaks fluently in English. Even the well-educated often fall for his glib talk. Whenever he is arrested, he drops names of influential people and attempts to mislead investigations,” said a senior police officer who has handled Sukesh.
In 2013, the Chennai police had arrested him and Leena for allegedly defrauding a nationalised bank’s Ambattur branch of ₹19 crore.
