Partners in crime: High profile conman Sukesh, MLA’s wife under CBI scanner over impersonation case

The CBI has recently picked up evidence on the involvement of Sukesh and the wife of an MLA from Chennai’s adjoining district, in a case where two men were arrested for impersonating CBI officers in Hyderabad to extract money from an ex-MP.

The agency had in January this year arrested two persons - Y Manivardhan Reddy, a resident of Hyderabad and Selvam Ramaraj from Madurai for allegedly posing as CBI officers and demanding bribe from ex-TDP MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, an accused in a bank fraud case.

With Sukesh out of jail yet again on interim bail till December 9 to perform his father’s last rites, the CBI sleuths are expected to zero in on him and the MLA’s wife to interrogate them. CBI sources said that the wife of the MLA, who played a crucial role in preparing Selvam Ramaraj for the fraud, is yet to be questioned. “She introduced Sukesh to Ramaraj over the phone as additional secretary to the PMO,” an officer said on condition of anonymity.

Presently on extended parole in Chennai, he has been staying in a bungalow off ECR where he and his partner, actor Leena Maria Paul, met the wife of the state legislator and his daughter to finalise a plan to mobilise money to set up a medical college, CBI sources said. Sukesh, who was arrested in 2017 in connection with the AIADMK’s Two Leaves symbol case, has been in and out of Delhi jail on parole and interim bail, and even underwent COVID treatment at RGGGH last month.

CBI sources said that he is an accused in a number of high-profile cheating cases across the country, including Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi and is in the habit of spoofing the mobile/landline numbers of senior functionaries working in PMO and CBI headquarters for cheating various dignitaries. Sukesh was also accused of forging the ID card of an MP and using a sticker of a Member of Parliament affixed to his car. He had also impersonated the PA to the Law Minister as well as a Judge of the Supreme Court. The swanky conman first hit headlines in 2013 when he and his partner were arrested on charges of duping Canara Bank in Chennai of Rs 13 crore by posing as an IAS officer.