The Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police has arrested actor Leena Maria Paul on Sunday for allegedly helping her boyfriend Sukesh Chandrasekhar in extorting ₹200 crore from a businessman’s wife.
Chandrasekhar is already an accused in 21 cases, including the Election Commission bribery case.
The police have invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime (MCOCA) Act against the accused and further investigation into the matter is under way.
A senior police officer said that Paul allegedly helped Chandrasekhar in duping former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh’s wife Aditi Singh.
An FIR was registered on August 7 after Ms. Singh informed the police that a man posing as a senior official of the Law Ministry in June last year had offered to help secure bail for her husband in return for money. Shivinder Singh was in jail at that time who was also arrested in a money laundering case related to the alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) in 2019.
According to the police, Chandrasekhar had made the call to Ms. Singh and he was arrested in August.
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 police later arrested his two associates, who ran operations for him from outside the prison, and two senior officials of the Rohini jail for aiding Chandrasekhar.
During the course of investigation, the police had found that a manager of a bank in Connaught Place and his two associates were involved in the dubious transactions for circulation of funds and arrangement of cash and the three were subsequently arrested, a senior official said.
