ED unearths 84 call recordings, reveals how Chandrasekhar duped his targets

A series of 84 phone call recordings between conman Chandrasekhar and Aditi Singh, wife of millionaire Shivinder Singh, reveals how the former had managed to procure crores of rupees from the latter. These recordings procured by the ED were submitted to the Delhi High Court on Friday making the ongoing case against Chandrasekhar stronger, according to media reports.

New Delhi: In the ongoing proceedings against conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar, the Enforcement Directorate has on Friday shared around 84 call recordings between Chandrasekhar and the wife of the former billionaire Shivinder Singh, revealing how she was conned of crores of rupees in the pretext of getting bail for her husband in exchange for money.

The case had first come to light in August this year, post which the tapes have been shared with the court today as concrete evidence against Chandrasekhar.

The recordings reveal that the culprit spoke to the victim Aditi Singh under the guise of Abhay Bhalla, a top official at the Home Ministry, Anoop Kumar, Law Secretary, and as Abhinav, who claimed to be a junior Law Ministry Officer. The tapes, obtained by media sources, were submitted by Aditi Singh, whose husband Shivinder Singh was arrested in 2019 under the charges of money laundering. A former billionaire, Singh was once one of the top businessmen in the country and co-owned pharma giant Ranbaxy with his brother Malvinder Singh.

Aditi started getting calls from 'top officials' from the government offices in early 2020, offering ways to get bail for her husband in jail in exchange for money. Initially, she started cooperating with the caller eventually and gave him around Rs 200 crore in 30 installments to get bail for her husband. It took her months to realise that the caller was a conman disguised as a top official, later, she intimated to the Enforcement Directorate about the issue. On the instructions by the ED, she started recording the calls and handed over them to the ED officials.

In the tape recordings, the conman in the guise of Abhay Bhalla can be heard telling Aditi Singh that Home Minister Amit Shah has personally asked him to call her and that with continued 'cooperation', her husband will soon be released. On asking for a meeting, the conman tells Aditi to wait for the 'right time'. The tapes also reveal indirect threats implying danger to the lives of Aditi's children living abroad. She claims to have liquidated most of her assets to feed money to these 'officials'.

Adding an interesting twist to the issue, it was found that Chandrasekhar was executing this master plan and bagging crores of rupees from high-class people from inside the Rohini jail, where he had access to a mobile phone. He used spoofing applications to disguise himself as top officials in the Home Ministry and Law Enforcement offices and approached Aditi Singh. He executed this plan with the help of two others, who assisted him from outside the jail.

Aditi Singh was one of his many targets. While she had already lodged a complaint against Chandrasekhar with the case in motion, newer pieces of evidence of his links with actress Jacqueline Fernandes have also recently come forward, putting her in the limelight.