The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi police has registered a case against 81 officials and staff members of the Rohini jail in north-west Delhi on corruption charges. The case was registered for taking bribe from conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar. The development comes after eight jail officials were arrested earlier for allegedly helping the jailed conman.
The cops booked Rohini jail staff after investigations revealed that Chandrashekhar distributed Rs 1.5 crore bribe to the jail staff every month for getting facilities to use mobile phones and a separate barrack without any hindrance. “Sukesh was paying Rs 1.5 crore every month for getting facilities to use mobile phones and a separate barrack without any hindrance. Based on documents, facts and evidence collected during the probe, it came to the fore that the money was paid to all staff, irrespective of their duties, as bribe to ensure they remain silent,” said the FIR.
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The police have also found a note in which the names of all the jail workers who used to get bribes have been found. The case was registered after getting permission from the Tihar jail administration.
Earlier, Chandrashekhar, who is also 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 sought 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.
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 to get some favour. He forged passes of MPs and car registration numbers and there are a large number of cases against him. 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.
Chandrashekar was arrested from a five-star hotel by the Delhi Police for allegedly taking money from Dhinakaran to bribe Election Commission (EC) officials to get the AIADMK 'two leaves' symbol for the V K Sasikala faction in a by-election to the R K Nagar assembly seat in Tamil Nadu. Dhinakaran, charge-sheeted by police, was also arrested by the Delhi Police after four days of questioning for allegedly attempting to bribe EC officials for the symbol. The by-election was necessitated by the death of then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who represented the assembly segment.
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