Jail authorities facilitated meetings of actors with conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar: Sources

According to sources, more than 10 actors, including some from Bollywood, met conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, an accused in the Rs 200 crore extortion case, while he was in jail.

Sources also added that the jail officials facilitated meetings of the actors with Sukesh. The conman was in touch with actor Jacqueline Fernandez over video calls and met her when he was out of jail.

A dozen prison officials have come under the scanner of investigators for facilitating these meetings of celebrities with Sukesh. Sources said that Sukesh was paying crores to the jail officials for his work, which included facilitating his meetings with actors and other people.

Sukesh, who is accused of extorting over Rs 200 crore from a businessman’s wife by impersonating government officials allegedly gave expensive gifts worth crores of rupees to actor Jacqueline Fernandez. He is also said to have made bogus claims against top Bollywood celebrities and chief ministers, said sources.

During an interrogation with the ED, Sukesh claimed that he has known Shraddha Kapoor since 2015 and had helped her legally in a Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) case. But ED sources said the claim is bogus.

The 32-year-old conman also claimed during his questioning that actor Harman Baweja is an old friend and he was trying to co-produce his next movie with Kartik Aryan.

However, ED sources said that Sukesh did not know Harman and he did not have the actor's number as well.

The conman also told the ED in his statement that Shilpa Shetty is his friend and he was helping her in getting husband Raj Kundra released, which according to sources is not true.

Sukesh also claimed that he called the offices of two chief ministers to congratulate them on their win in assembly elections and spoke to them, which again is untrue.

The ED has alleged that Sukesh had been in regular contact with Jacqueline since February 2021 till he got arrested on August 7, 2021.