From installing 55 CCTV cameras around his ward in Tihar Jail to deploying two personnel of the Tamil Nadu Special Police (TNSP) and two jail wardens outside round the clock – these are some of the special arrangements made by the prison administration to keep tabs on conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who has been accused of extorting Rs 200 crore from former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Singh’s wife Aditi Singh while sitting in jail. Aditi had filed a complaint alleging that she was cheated by a man posing as a law secretary, who promised to help with her husband’s legal cases. Chandrashekhar, his lawyer B Mohan Raj, actress Leena Paul, her manager Joel Jose Matthews, Kamlesh Kothari, who helped Sukesh buy a bungalow in Chennai, and Arun Muthu, who helped him buy luxury cars, have since been slapped with the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). “A few days ago, Sukesh was sent to judicial custody at Tihar. This time, the administration has made proper arrangements to keep a tab on him. His cell is next to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar’s. Around 50 CCTV cameras have been installed in his ward and five high-end CCTV cameras in his cell,” a senior jail official said. Posters have been put up outside his cell stating that entry is prohibited without permission of a senior official. “We have made a double security layer outside his cell and deployed two personnel of TNSP and also a head warder along with a warden,” the official said. The Tihar Jail administration, during an internal probe into an extortion racket being run from Rohini jail, has found that Sukesh was using mobile phones and was helped by prison officials. “He was being given certain favours… While in jail, he used his bedsheets as curtains for his barracks to avoid being caught on CCTV,” said a source. Officials said two blankets have been provided by the jail administration, and “regular water” is being given to him now. “He had requested the jail superintendent to provide him with a special diet – B class food (made for jail officials and on special request), but his request has been turned down,” an official said. An official said that in 2018, a head warder was suspended after jail administration found that Sukesh’s girlfriend Leena had come to meet him on his birthday and they organised a party in his chamber.
