MCOCA Case: Delhi court extends 7 day police custody of conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar's two associates

A Delhi Court on Thursday extended the seven-day police remand of two co-accused arrested along with alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar in the case in which former Ranbaxy promoter's wife was cheated. The Delhi Police recently invoked provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the present FIR.

Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police recently arrested several people along with Sukesh Chandrashekhar and his wife and actress Leena Maria Paul for allegedly duping Aditi Singh, wife of the former promoter of Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh, of Rs 200 crore.

The Additional Sessions Judge on Thursday extended seven days police remand of Pradeep Ramdanee and Deepak Ramnani co-accused persons in the case, who were arrested on August 7 and August 8 respectively the case.

"....After considering the entire record produced before me, I find that due to voluminous nature of the evidence that has been recovered, its scrutiny is going to take time and both the accused also need to be confronted with the said evidence, which is also going to take time"... Court said.

ASJ Praveen Singh also said, I further find that there have been huge transactions as have been alleged by the police and disclosed by the accused through Hawala as well as shell companies and as these shell companies were registered at bogus addresses, custody of the accused persons will be required to trace those companies and to find the money trail which has spread out of Delhi and out of India. Thus, I find that the case for the extension of further custody of the accused is made out.

Advocate Anant Malik and Shashank Dewan represented the accused Deepak Ramnani and Advocate Rohan Yadav and Anurag Andley appeared for Pradeep Ramdanee heavily opposed the further remand of them.

Earlier, Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Shrivastava submitted that Sukesh, Leena along with their associates used Hawala routes, created Shell companies to park the money earned from proceeds of crime.

Chandrashekhar, an alleged conman, is accused in many cases, including the Election Commission bribery case etc.

Delhi Police's EOW registered two FIRs against Chandrasekhar and others for allegedly duping the spouses of former promoters of Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh, and Malvinder Singh, of Rs 200 crore besides ongoing investigations against him in several cases across the country.

According to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police, it has extended its investigation into the case related to extortion of over Rs 200 crore, by Rohini jail inmate Sukesh Chandrasekar for allegedly duping wives of former Religare promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, who are currently in Tihar jail.

Investigation revealed that the accused Sukesh Chandrasekar had duped Shivinder's wife Aditi Singh and Malvinder's wife Japna Singh worth over several crores of rupees.

The women claimed that they have paid crores of rupees to the alleged conman to secure bail for their husbands and ensure their safety, posing as an officer from the Union Law Ministry.

"I was assured that the central government would be interested to work with my husband after making him an 'industry advisor' on Covid-related committees; he asked me to contribute to the 'party fund' and assured to set up a meeting either with the former law minister or home minister," Aditi Singh alleged in her FIR.

While according to Japna Singh, she paid a total of Rs 3.5 crore to Hong Kong-based account on July 28, 29, 30, and August 6, and has shared proof of the transactions.

A senior official of Delhi Police had earlier confirmed that the matter is quite sensitive and arrested Sukesh from Rohini jail; his two associates Pradeep Ramdani and Deepak Ramnani; two jail officials, deputy superintendent Subhash Batra and assistant jail superintendent Dharam Singh Meena; and three men, Komal Poddar, who is a manager at RBL in Connaught Place, and his two associates Avinash Kumar and Jitender Narula.

( With inputs from ANI )