Mumbai: Alleged fraudster Sukash Chandershekhar had allegedly told an actress that he was a ‘government officer’ who ‘handled a lot of cases’ from his office at Delhi’s Tihar jail where she met him in May 2018 and another time later. He also allegedly told her that he produces films in south India and offered her a role.
The duo exchanged their telephone numbers but the actress could not contact Mr Chandershekhar after she allegedly insisted on meeting him outside. The actress’s witness statement is part of the Delhi police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW)’s recent supplementary charge-sheet in connection with the Rs200 crore extortion case in which Mr Chandershekhar is an accused.
The actress’s statements were made before the court as well as the EOW. She said she was unaware about Mr Chandershekhar’s criminal antecedents and would not have agreed to meet him if she had known.
According to her statement, an alleged female associate of Mr Chandershekhar had contacted her in May 2018, describing herself as a talent-scouting representative for movie aspirants and offered to introduce them for a movie role. The associate described him as government officer Shekhar Reddy, without telling her of his criminal antecedents or that he was lodged at the jail as an inmate. The aide, who has also been charge-sheeted in the case by EOW, allegedly told the actress that he handled a lot of ‘investigation’ as an officer and belonged to a political family that produced movies in south India.
The actress said that the room where he met her seemed like a government office with amenities but was also suffused with fragrance. When she went to meet the associate for the first time, she was allegedly called outside the prison. She found Mr Chandershekhar’s associate waiting in her car inside the prison’s main gate. The actress was allowed in without any checking.
The actress was taken to a room on the first floor, which had a big-screen TV, a sofa, fan, a small refrigerator and a small food bar. Two men purportedly looking like policemen stood outside, the actress claimed.
In her second meeting with him, he allegedly pointed at some purported files kept in his ‘office’ on the ground floor this time, which he said he was studying. The actress said that Mr Chandershekhar had got some money transferred to her bank account as a token for the movie project with the contract pending. He also gifted her a small branded bag.
The actress said that when she was asked to meet him again in June, she had insisted upon meeting him outside as she was not comfortable visiting him in jail. A few days later, when she attempted to contact him telephonically, his number came unavailable.
