Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has granted permission to Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to launch an investigation against eight prison officers accused of helping ‘conman’ Sukesh Chandrasekhar run an organised crime syndicate from Rohini jail, a Raj Niwas source said on Wednesday.
The proceedings under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, come a year after Mr. Saxena approved a similar probe against 81 other jail officers.
A Raj Niwas source said the eight accused are Group B officers who have been arrested for providing Mr. Chandrasekhar access to mobile phones and a separate barrack in exchange for ₹1.5 crore each month.
Life in jail
Mr. Chandrasekhar was moved from the Tihar jail to the Mandoli jail in August 2022.
According to a Tihar official, Mr. Chandrasekhar has been shifted among all three city prison complexes between 2021 and 2022.
“All personnel have been instructed to wear body cameras so that his movements and conversations can be recorded at all times,” he added.
The official said the alleged conman has not been restricted from making phone calls or meeting his advocate and relatives.
“However, Chandrashekhar is not allowed to interact with other inmates in his cell since there are chances of him manipulating them.”
Old CCTV footage from Mr. Chandrashekhar’s cell shows him living a lavish lifestyle, wearing expensive jeans, and Gucci slippers, the official said. “On one occasion, ₹1.5 lakh in cash was confiscated from his cell during a raid.”
On October 18, 2022, the Supreme Court had rejected a plea by Mr. Chandrasekhar’s lawyers requesting that he be shifted out of Delhi’s prisons.
The next month, he wrote to the L-G requesting that he be shifted to a jail outside the city due to a threat to his life.
Multiple probes
In addition to the Rohini jail crime syndicate case, Mr. Chandrasekhar is being investigated in multiple cases, which include extortion and money laundering.
He has been booked for duping several people to the tune of ₹200 crore, including the spouse of Shivinder Mohan Singh, the former promoter of Ranbaxy, who is now in jail.
