While the former billionaire was behind the bars, Shivinder Singh’s wife spent many hours on the cell conversing payments to get bail for him. She seems to believe that she is rebuking senior officials in the government, including the Home Secretary of the nation. She asked for a gathering with the Home Minister – and is told it’ll happen in due time if she “co-operates.” She discusses funds that were paid without the pledged results. She speaks about the cash given by her to “a party fund.”
It takes several months for her to figure out that her discussions are with an impersonator, that she has been conned for crores. After being tipped off in July, by the Enforcement Directorate, she started recording the conversations. She then transfers it over to the Enforcement Directorate and files a case with the Delhi Police proclaiming extortion and cheating summing up to 200 crores.
This is a story jam-choked with twists the most important of which is that the man who was calling her was calling her from prison. He had a hold of a cellphone and software which he used and that helped him to spoof the cell numbers of top government officers. The recordings not 1 but 84 of them are submitted by the Enforcement Directorate to a Delhi court to help nail Chandrashekhar, who has been behind the bars since 2017.
The woman who helped catch him is Aditi Singh, whose husband, Shivinder Singh, once co-owned Ranbaxy together with his brother, Malvinder Singh. Shivinder was put in handcuffs in 2019 on charges of money laundering.
Not even one government officer impersonated by Sukesh Chandrashekhar has filed a police complaint. Because none of the 200 crores was paid to a government official, there’s no bribe involved. Aditi Singh’s police case is filed against Chandrashekhar, alleging that she was pressurized into paying 200 crores.
In June 2020, Aditi Singh began engaging with what she thought were senior government officers. Sukesh Chandrashekhar was ambitious within the identities he faked – he had some conversations together with her as Ajay Bhalla, the highest bureaucrat within the Home Ministry; as Anoop Kumar, the country’s Law Secretary; and as ‘Abhinav’, a junior Law Ministry officer, who was more forthright than the others in discussing the cash payments needed.
The cellphones of Sukesh and Aditi had been tapped for several cases connected to them. Their chats went for over 11 months; the later exchanges were taken into the record by Aditi Singh, per investigators.
Sukesh Chandrashekhar, in his different forms, refers to bail hearings in Supreme Court and demands cash ahead of them. Aditi Singh’s sister, Arundhati, expresses her twinge with this direct reference to court proceedings, stating: “So now if you put so much pressure on me brother I can’t work. I’ve told you this before. And before also it’s been done. It’s only bought trouble, trouble, and more trouble. And we don’t know what you’re using the money for. I’ve never asked you, I’ve never been told. I don’t want to know. Because we were giving it for a party fund. We are giving a donation. What you use the donation for? Whether you use it for elections or whether you use it for putting in Ganga or whether you use it for planting trees – upto you. We don’t know so we don’t ask.”
In one conversation, participating from prison, Shivinder Singh asks for a gathering between his wife and therefore the Law Secretary. Aditi Singh is additionally promised this meeting by ‘Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla’. He claims he is instructed personally by Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah to contact her. He says government officers “will get involved with you to work out your husband is released” but this is often contingent upon her continued “cooperation” which he suggests has been waning. She assures to course correct and seeks a gathering with him. ‘Ajay Bhalla’ says this may happen at the correct time, same for a gathering with the house Minister.
Aditi had filed an FIR against Chandrashekar in the month of August, charging him with taking an amount of ₹ 200 crores in 30 parts. She spoke about calls from Anoop Kumar, the Law Secretary, an under-secretary, Abhinav for money that was collected in multiple shares by two people.
“These people accustomed scare me, threaten me. So steadily, I gave them 200 crores, using my jewelry, investments, and other assets. Even then, the threats continued. They pointed to my children studying abroad and said they’d settle scores with them,” she has said in her complaint, which was filed after she was informed by the Enforcement Directorate that she was being conned.
Aditi Singh appears to be one of Chandrashekhar’s many ‘targets’. He lived an uber-luxe lifestyle in Chennai with a sea-facing mansion and about 23 cars including a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari, and a Bentley. Jacqueline Fernandes, the actor, has been connected to a money-laundering case against him and was recently stopped from flying abroad. She has also informed the investigators that Chandrashekhar gave her Chanel bags, Gucci gym clothes, and expensive holidays with private jets, but that she engaged in no illicit financial deals with him.
