The Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing arrested actress Leena Maria Paul on September 5 for allegedly helping her boyfriend, Sukesh Chandrasekhar, an accused in 21 cases, in extorting Rs. 200 crore from a businessman’s wife. Paul allegedly helped Chandrasekhar in duping former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh’s wife, Aditi Singh. The police have invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control Of Organised Crime (MCOCA) Act against the accused. Further investigation in the matter is underway.
An FIR had been registered on August 7 this year after Aditi Singh informed police that a man, posing as a senior official of the law ministry, in June last year had offered to help her secure bail for her husband who was in jail at that time, in return for money. Shivinder Singh was arrested in a money laundering case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd. (RFL) in 2019.
Chandrasekhar, an accused in 21 cases including the Election Commission bribery case, had made the call to Aditi Singh, and he was arrested in August this year. At the time of the incident, Chandrasekhar was lodged in Delhi’s Rohini jail and was running an extortion racket from behind the bars.
Leena Maria Paul was first arrested along with Sukesh Chandrasekhar in 2013 for cheating Canara Bank of Rs. 19 crore. The duo was again arrested in 2015 by the Economic Offences Wing of the Bombay Police for trying to make people invest in a bogus firm on the promise of high returns. Then, in 2018, two men on a bike fired shots at a beauty parlour run by Leena in Kochi. In her complaint, the actress had alleged that she had received Internet threat calls on her mobile phone, demanding Rs. 25 crore on November 3, 2018 under instructions from underworld don Ravi Pujari. According to her, the caller had threatened to kill her if the money was not paid.