It's not a film script, it happened for real. A conman sitting in jail extorted a whopping 200 crore from the family of a jailed billionaire.
Here is how the great conjob was executed.
First, meet the dramatis personae:
Former Ranbaxy owner Shivinder Singh, jailed and desperate to come out.
Singh's wife Aditi Singh, desperate to get her husband out.
Enter Sukesh Chandrashekhar, the modern-day Mr Natwarlal.
From June 2020 to May 2021, Chandrashekhar made several calls to Aditi Singh from inside Delhi high-security Tihar jail. He used mobile applications and voice modulation software to pose as law secretary at times and home secretary on other occasions.
Chandrashekhar managed to extort Rs 215 crore from Aditi Singh on the pretext of helping her husband get out of jail.
Media reports have outed over 80 audio clips of Chandrashekhara's conversations with Aditi Singh. These audio clips are reportedly part of the ED's charge sheet against the conman.
Chandrashekhar reportedly made the first call to Aditi Singh on June 15, 2020, pretending to be the law secretary, Anoop Kumar. He told Aditi that he was calling on the instructions of the Prime Minister's Office to help her get Shivinder out of jail.
When Aditi checked the number, she found that the number from which she got the call was from the Law Secretary’s office, reports said.
After three similar calls, Chandrashekhara asked Aditi for money in the name of party funds. In the months that followed, Aditi kept giving money in hope that her husband would come out of jail.