ED corners conman Sukesh, seizes beachfront bungalow, 16 top-end cars, 2 kg gold

The Delhi unit of the agency, which has registered a money laundering case, believe that Sukesh could have extorted nearly Rs 200 crore from influential people despite being lodged in Tihar jail. They had also questioned his partner Leena Maria Paul. 

“Several teams have been carrying out searches at the bungalow for more than four days. We have moved 16 luxury cars to a warehouse, while seizure details are being tabulated. As on Monday, Rs 82.5 lakh and 2 kg gold were seized,” ED sources said on Monday evening. 

Posing as a Law Ministry official, Sukesh allegedly contacted the wife of a jailed businessman in August first week, promising to secure him bail if she paid up. But she filed a complaint and two persons who went to collect the money were arrested. After a high-end mobile phone was seized from his cell in Tihar jail, investigators are probing the possible involvement of jail officials in the extortion. 

Sukesh is an accused in a number of high-profile cheating cases across the country, including in Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi. Officials said he spoofed the mobile phone and landline numbers of senior officials from Prime Minister’s Office and CBI headquarters to cheat various rich persons. He has also impersonated as PA to the Union Law Minister and a Supreme Court judge. 

He was arrested in 2017 for allegedly tried to bribe officials of Election Commission of India to settle a case against AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran. Since then, he has been in and out of Tihar jail on parole and interim bail, and even managed to come to Chennai last year for COVID treatment at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. 

Sukesh had first hit the headlines in 2013 when he and his partner Leena Maria Paul, an aspiring actor, were arrested on charges of duping the Canara Bank in Chennai of Rs 13 crore by posing as an IAS officer.