SC to hear conman Sukash Chandrashekhar's plea for being shifted out of Tihar jail

New Delhi, July 13: The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday the plea of conman' Sukesh Chandrashekhar to shift him out of Delhi's Tihar jail due to alleged threats to his life.

Fixing the petition for hearing on July 13, a vacation bench of justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala said that the final order on Chandrashekhar's plea should be passed by the original bench, led by justice Uday U Lalit, that heard the case.

Chandrashekhar, who is accused of bribing Tihar jail officials to the tune of Rs 60 lakh to Rs 75 lakh per fortnight to live in comfort with his spouse Leena, is seeking his transfer to a prison outside Delhi allegedly fearing threat from the prison officials who are under the scanner for favouring him and his wife inside the jail here.

Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the jailed couple, had said that since many prison officials are under arrest for taking 'protection money' from him, the jailed couple is facing threats from other officials, and requested that they be shifted to any prison of the court's choice.

The senior lawyer had said the accused were willing to be shifted even to the Andaman jail.

The Union government had on May 13 assured the top court about the safety of Chandrashekhar.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had on April 4 arrested the 'conman' in another money laundering case linked to the 2017 Election Commission bribery instance allegedly involving former AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran and others.

The 32-year-old is already in jail after the federal probe agency arrested him last year in a case of alleged cheating and extorting money from some prominent people, including former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh's wife Aditi Singh.

The accused used the name of the retired judge of this court to get some favour. He forged passes of MPs and car registration numbers and there are a large number of cases against him and the bail was not granted by this court, one of the probe agencies had said.

A number of Bollywood actresses and models have also been questioned in this 2021 case by the ED for their alleged links to Chandrashekhar.

The ED, in April this year, had placed Chandrashekhar under arrest in the 2017 case and he was put in jail a few days back, while a local court later remanded him to the agency's custody, officials said.

Chandrasekhar was first arrested by Delhi Police in 2017 for allegedly duping an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader of ₹2 crore on the pretext of helping the politician retain the party's two leaves symbol by bribing Election Commission officers.