Supreme Court refuses bail to wife of conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar in ₹200 crore extortion case

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant bail to Leena Paulose, wife of conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar, in connection with a ₹200 crore extortion case [Leena Paulose vs State of NCT of Delhi]..A Vacation Bench of Justices PV Sanjay Kumar and Augustine George Masih remarked that since there were multiple and serious charges against Paulose, she could not seek interim bail citing protracted trial and parity with co-accused. It, thus, refused to interfere with a May 25 Delhi High Court order declining interim relief to Paulose."Special Leave Petition is dismissed. Pending applications shall also stand dismissed", the top court stated..The case against Paulose concerns an extortion case being probed by the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW).The Delhi Police have alleged that Chandrasekhar duped the wives of former promoters of Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh, of ₹200 crores.Chandrasekhar is alleged to have posed as an officer of the law ministry and the two women were stated to have paid several crores of rupees to Chandrasekhar to secure bail for their husbands.The EOW filed a chargesheet in the matter against Leena Paulose under Sections 170, 186, 384, 386, 388, 419, 420, 406, 409, 420, 468, 471, 353, 506, 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 66D of Information Technology Act and Sections 3 and 4 Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, 1999.Paulose, Chandrasekhar and others have been accused of using Hawala routes to create shell companies and park money earned from the proceeds of their crime.The Supreme Court had in October last year too refused to grant her bail, after Delhi High Court had rejected her bail plea.The High Court had, at the time, found that the two were prima facie involved in the offence and that there was no infirmity in the trial court order that had rejected bail applications filed by them..Senior Advocate Trideep Pais with Advocates Anant Malik, Paul John Edison, Anju Thomas, Sanjeev Kaushik, and Lihzu Shiney Konyak appeared for Paulose before the apex court..[Read order]