NE LEGAL BUREAU
NEW DELHI, SEPT 24
The Delhi High Court dismissed the bail plea of a man, accused of impersonating as an IAS officer and private secretary to the law minister and influencing senior officers of police for ensuring special favours to him in jail.
The High Court on Thursday denied the relief to Sukesh Chandrashekar, who is accused in 21 cases including the Election Commission bribery case allegedly involving AMMK founder and RK Nagar MLA TTV Dhinakaran and others.
There is sufficient material on record to show that he committed the offences of criminal conspiracy, forgery for the purpose of cheating and using forged documents as genuine, the court said.
“In view of the continuous course of conduct of the petitioner (Chandrasekhar) in interfering with the administration of justice, this court finds no ground to grant bail to the petitioner. Petition is dismissed,” Justice Mukta Gupta said in the judgement.
The present FIR relates to the allegations against Chandrashekar of impersonating as Sarvana Kumar, IAS, PS to the Union Minister of Law and Justice and influencing the senior officers of the 8th Battalion for ensuring special favours to him in jail and that he be taken care of.
“Considering the investigation carried out and even if no statements of N Saravana Kumar, PS to the Minister of Law and Justice and the ADGP, Tamil Nadu police have been recorded under Section 161 CrPC, at this stage this court is of the prima facie opinion that there is sufficient material on record in the form of scientific evidence and statements of other witnesses that the petitioner has committed offences punishable..,” the court said.
It said the offences in which he was allegedly involved are punishable up to 7 years imprisonment and it cannot be said that he has undergone substantial sentence and be released on bail.
Chandrashekar was initially arrested in April 2017 from a hotel here in the EC bribery case.
According to the prosecution, while he was in custody and was being taken for an outstation production from Delhi in June 2017, a call was made to the officials of Tamil Nadu Special Police (TSP), 8th Battalion, introducing himself as Sarvana Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs.
It said the aim of the caller was to influence the senior officers of TSP, 8th Battalion and to instruct them to favour prisoner Sukesh Chandrashekar who was lodged in Central Jail no.1 at Tihar Jail.
It said the manner and content of the call raised suspicion and an official was sent to the office of the IAS officer to verify the call where it was clarified that he had neither made any call nor was aware of any such inmate in jail.
The incident was brought to the notice of the Director General (Prisons) and an FIR was lodged in this regard. He was formally arrested in the case on May 23, 2018.
Chandrashekar’s counsel submitted that he has been in custody in this case for more than 22 months, excluding the period of custody parole, and there was no evidence of offences of cheating by impersonation, forgery for the purpose of cheating and using forged documents as genuine and he was entitled for bail.
According to the status report filed by the state, while being taken outstation in another case, the accused had taken the mobile phone of a member of the escorting team on humanitarian grounds and one of the fake calls was made from this number.
The report said there are 20 other cases registered against the accused and the allegations in four cases lodged by the crime branch of Delhi Police are of serious nature.
It said that in the first FIR, he took money to influence the Election Commission, in the second he tried to influence the Special Judge by making a phone call impersonating himself as the Supreme Court judge.
In the third FIR, he has impersonated as PS to the Law Minister to ensure that he gets benefits in the Jail and in the fourth one when taken on outstation duty he influenced the escorting team and instead of going by the train as prescribed, he went by air along with the escort team and at Bangalore he was found roaming in a mall with co-accused Jerin which had been captured in the CCTV footage.
The high court noted that his jail conduct was not satisfactory as a number of mobile phones and SIM cards were recovered from his cell besides other punishments being awarded to him.
At the time of his arrest in April 2017, the police had seized a fake Rajya Sabha member ID card from his possession.
Chandrashekar was arrested for allegedly taking money from Dhinakaran to bribe EC officials to get the AIADMK ”two leaves” symbol for the Sasikala faction in a by-election to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu.
