Delhi Court sends Sukesh Chandrashekhar, Leena Maria to judicial custody in Rs 200 cr money laundering case

Sukesh Chandrashekhar, Leena Maria Paul and others were produced before the Patiala House Court at the end of their remand.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) while seeking Judicial Custody for them, submitted in the application that the accused were arrested on October 9, 2021, and remanded under the ED custody for tracing out the proceeds of crime.

ED further submitted that the department is still investigating the matter to trace the proceeds of crimeand involvement of other persons in the offence of money laundering.

After taking note of the submission, Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh on Saturday remanded them to judicial custody till November.

Earlier the same court had said that to establish the money trail of the proceeds of crime and to confront the accused with the statements of other accused, custodial interrogation of the accused is required.

Advocates Atul Tripathi and Mohammad Faraz, Special Public Prosecutors along with R. K. Shah, appeared for ED. While Advocates Anant Malik, Rohan Yadav and Gayatri Jamwal appeared for accused Sukesh Chandrashekhar and Leena Maria Paul in the matter.

Earlier, Court noted that money was being moved at Leena Maria Paul's instructions, the trial is still unknown, if the ED is not granted custody, the money trail which is currently unknown would go cold.

The court also took notice that at the time of the incident, Chandrasekhar was lodged in Delhi's Rohini jail and was running an extortion racket from behind the bars.

The ED, a financial probe agency, has recently arrested them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the extortion racket which was being run from a Delhi jail. Two co-accused Pradeep Ramdani and Deepak Ramnani have been also arrested by the ED in case.

According to ED, during the investigation, searches were conducted at various places linked to Chandrashekar and his associates. 16 high-end vehicles were seized under section 17 PMLA and these cars are either in the name of firms of Leena Paulose or in the name of third parties.

It is further submitted that it has emerged that Sukesh knowingly created the structure for layering and transferring proceeds of crime and thus, actively participated in the process of money laundering.

Sukesh and Maria Paul along with several others accused were earlier arrested by Delhi Police. The police have recently also invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case.

Delhi Police had alleged that Leena, Sukesh with others used Hawala routes, created Shell companies to park the money earned from proceeds of crime.

Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had registered an FIR against Chandrasekhar for allegedly duping the spouses of former promoters of Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh, and Malvinder Singh, of Rs 200 crore besides ongoing investigations against him in several cases across the country. (ANI)