CMM court transfers extortion case against Sukesh Chandrasekhar to special PMLA court
May 04, 2023
New Delhi [India], May 4 : Delhi's Patiala House Court on Thursday transferred the extortion case against Sukesh Chandrasekhar and five others to a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.
The court passed the direction in view of the fact that ED has filed a complaint (Charge sheet) before the Special in the connected matter.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria transferred the matter to the court of special judge Shailendra Malik.
Three accused Sukesh Chandrasekar, Pradeep Ramdani and Avtar Singh Kochar were produced physically.
The court asked Delhi police about the other three accused persons Dharam Singh Meena, Deepak Ramdani and Subhash Batra who were not produced physically. Thereafter the court asked Delhi police to get them delivered through video conferencing from Jail.
This case is related to the complaint filed by Japna Singh. This case is at the stage of arguments on charges against the accused persons.
One of the accused Pradeep Ramdani had moved an application seeking transfer of the case to the PMLA court.
Earlier, the special court had taken cognizance of a chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the Japna Singh case, wherein Sukesh Chandrashekhar is accused of having extorted an amount of around Rs. 3.5 cr.
ED has filed a Prosecution Complaint (Chargesheet) against Sukesh Chandrashekhar in another case of Extortion and Money Laundering based on a complaint filed by Businessman Malvinder Singh's wife Japna Singh.
The Special Judge Shailender Malik after taking cognizance had also directed for production of all accused named in the said chargesheet on May 16, 2023.
Sukesh who is facing several cases of Extortion, cheating and money-laundering case, was arrested by the ED on February 16, 2023, in this case, for allegedly duping businessman Malvinder Singh's wife Japna Singh for 3.5 crore rupees.
According to the complainant, Sukesh Chandrashekar had called Japna M. Singh by impersonating himself as a senior government official and extorting money from her.
While seeking remand, ED submitted that there is material evidence and reasons to believe that the accused is guilty of money laundering as per section 3 punishable under section 4 of the PMLA.
The accused is involved in the laundering of proceeds of crime and has been involved in projecting the proceeds of crime as untainted.
"The accused Sukesh Chandrashekhar is deliberately withholding and not divulging the evidence and thus not cooperating in the investigation. Custodial interrogation of the accused Sukesh Chandrashekhar is essential to establish money trail of Proceeds of Crime," said the ED in Court.
The said FIR has been registered on the basis of a complaint filed by Japna M. Singh, wife of Malvinder Singh against certain unknown persons for impersonating themselves as government officers and after that cheating her to the tune of Rs. 3.5 Crores.
The ED's case is based on an FIR filed by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Sukesh Chandrasekhar who is accused of cheating and extorting Japna Singh and Aditi Singh, wife of the former promoter of Religare Enterprises, who are in Judicial custody related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd.
Both Chandrasekhar and his actor wife Leena Maria Paul were arrested by the Delhi Police in September last year for their alleged role in the duping case.
Bollywood actors Jacqueline Fernandez, Nora Fatehi and several other names surfaced during the investigation of the Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police and Enforcement Directorate.