‘Serving officials, politicians, people from bureaucracy were associated with him’.
New Delhi: The interrogation of conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar has revealed startling information that includes his liaison with an established Bollywood actress, his personal links with people active in the political, judicial and bureaucratic circles and the use of advanced communication technology to make spoof calls to his targets.
Chandrashekhar, who has been accused of amassing at least Rs 200 crore from multiple people by promising them of help through his contacts among government officials and people’s representatives, has earned much more, most of which has been parked in tax havens, benami properties and with his close associates.
According to information accessed by The Sunday Guardian, Chandrashekhar had given Rs 50 lakh to an actress with whom he had close ties, which was invested by her in buying about 100 shares of a popular over-the-top (OTT) platform. Apart from this payment, he kept gifting her other valuable things over a period of time.
While the actress has maintained that she was among the victims of Chandrashekhar, investigation and evidence have revealed that the two shared a close relationship that spanned across years, before both of them rose to prominence in their respective field, the actress in Bollywood and Chandrashekar in conning.
The conversation between these two individuals, of personal nature, are crucial in establishing what role, if any, the actress played in this con game that Chandrashekhar was playing. The questioning of the actress in question is also likely to reveal new names, who were conned and other individuals who were a part of the operation that was carried out by Chandrashekhar.
Apart from the actress, the officials have also come across evidence that makes it clear that government officials and people associated with the judiciary, apart from politicians, were also given gifts by Chandrashekhar. The officials are now focusing on what favours were given by them to Chandrashekhar in lieu of the gifts that they received from him.
Perhaps the most startling of the entire investigation against Chandrashekhar which is being carried out by Finance ministry officials, is the use of advanced technology that he was using to target his victims. “Imagine a situation where you receive a call from a Chief Minister of a state. The number that is visible on your handset too is of the number that the CM uses. The voice is also of the CM. What will stop you from believing that you are talking to the CM? That’s what he was doing. He has this ability to imitate and modulate the voice of any individual. To track the origin of the spoof calls and to establish who made them and from where, we had to request the cooperation of a central agency which has expertise over such issues. It was for the first time that this central agency was asked to help the investigating agency in solving a case,” an official told The Sunday Guardian.
According to a senior official, Chandrashekhar could not have survived, leave alone rise prominently, if he did not have the support of the government officials who are supposed to track such individuals. “Serving officials, politicians, people from the bureaucracy were associated with him. Were they aware of his activities or they were just associated with him for the gifts and lavish time that he arranged for them is something we are probing,” he said.