NEW DELHI: Jailed c
conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar has written to Delhi L-G VK Saxena alleging he paid Rs 10 crore to incarcerated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister Satyendar Jain as “protection money” and is being “threatened and harassed” by the minister. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has initiated a probe into the claims.
In the letter, Chandrashekhar claimed that he knew the AAP leader since 2015. He alleged Rs 50 crore was paid to the AAP as he was promised an important party position in south zone. Chandrashekhar claimed he had disclosed the payments made to Jain, the AAP and also D-G Prisons, to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team last month and also filed a petition in Delhi high court seeking a CBI enquiry. He alleged that Jain has been threatening him, asking to withdraw the complaint.
Chandrashekhar is lodged in Delhi’s Mandoli jail in a case of extorting high-profile people and celebrities. Earlier, he was lodged in Tihar jail, but was shifted after his repeated requests. He had claimed that he received death threats from Tihar jail. Jain, meanwhile, is in Tihar jail in connection with a money-laundering case.
“After my arrest in 2017 for the two leaf symbol corruption case, I was lodged in Tihar Jail and was visited by Mr. Satyendar Jain, who holds the Portfolio of Jail min, multiple times, asking me if I had disclosed anything related to my contribution to AAP to the investigating agency which arrested me. Thereafter in 2019 again I was visited by Satyender Jain and his Secretary and his close friend Mr. Sushil in Jail, and asking me to pay Rs. 2 Crores every month to him as protection money to live safely in Jail, and to get even basic facility provided,” the letter stated.
“During investigation, although it had come to light that senior jail officials had taken bribe/protection money from Sukesh, but these facts (related to bribe/protection money to Jain) are absolutely new. The ED has taken the allegations very seriously, and will investigate the matter to core. The ED will shortly question Sukesh Chandrashekhar in the matter,” said the ED. CBI Files Chargesheet Against ‘Conman’ Sukesh Chandrashekhar for Extortion by Spoofing Phone Numbers
Meanwhile, AAP chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal brushed it aside, saying “the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has to rely on a conman, as you say he is, shows their sorry state in Gujarat”. The BJP, meanwhile, lashed out at the party, calling it “corrupt”.The BJP cited the letter, sent on October 7, as proof that AAP is a “party of frauds”.
Arvind Kejriwal called the allegations “completely fictitious” and a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the Gujarat election and the Morbi bridge tragedy, in which 135 people died on Sunday. “The Morbi tragedy occurred the day before yesterday. All TV channels raised this issue yesterday but it disappeared today, and Sukesh Chandrasekhar’s allegations appeared. Doesn’t this look like a completely fictitious story planted to divert attention from Morbi?” Mr Kejriwal told reporters. “They are panicking ahead of the Gujarat election. They did not have to do anything during elections all these years.
Several BJP leaders shared screenshots of Sukesh Chandrasekhar’s letter to the Lieutenant Governor. “It is learned from news that there has been a thuggery in the house of the thug. And the name of the thug is Sukesh Chandrashekhar. And the person who cheated the thug is Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendra Jain,” said the BJP’s Sambit Patra.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had told a court that “certain documents” had revealed a “well-designed public relation exercise (by the conman) by hiring a public relations company to get articles published in major newspapers attacking top jail functionaries as a strategy to ensure Sukesh Chandrashekhar’s transfer.
(Bureau Report with Media Inputs).
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