Victims of 8-fingered conman reveal what makes him the best

Mastermind Shekhar ChandrashekharHis first con at age 17 cost him two fingers of his right hand Instead of deterring him it set him even more determinedly on the path of crime ensuring the missing fingers would never be a handicap In a career spanning 10 years Sukesh Chandrashekhar alias Shekhar 27 probably the smoothest conman the country has seen in a while has cheated politicians lawyers doctors college students security agencies vegetable vendors and even his istriwallahShekhar Chandrashekhar his partner in crime actor Leena Maria Paul who has starred in Madras CafeHis highjinks hit a speed bump last week when he was arrested by Delhi Police for ambitiously trying to bribe Election Commission EC officials on behalf of AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran in getting his party the AIADMKs poll symbol of two leaves He had taken Rs 50 crore to ensure that the ECs decision would go in Dinakarans favourShekhar has tattooed Leenas name circledacircAcircAcircu00c2u0080AcircAcircu00c2u0088on his armSlippery customerCops have been chasing Sukesh through the length and breadth of the country over Ponzi schemes unpaid loans and innumerable other frauds Yet despite the CBI and other agencies having arrested and thrown him in jail in apparently water tight cases he has managed to wriggle out and get on with his criminal careerHis MaseratiKarunanidhis grandsonSukesh who also goes by the name Balaji has masqueraded as the grandson of M Karunanidhi the son of former union minister TR Baalu son of Karnataka minister Karunakara Reddy and as secretary of Karnatakas former chief minister BS Yedyurrappa He uses guntoting bodyguards and cars with red beacons to convince his targets that he has family connections in high placesHis opulent chairFactory workers sonIn truth his father was a rubber factory worker His parents however had big dreams for him and enrolled him at Bangalores Baldwin Boys School attended by children from wealthy familiesOne of his many highend bikesSukesh was among a handful of very few poor students at the school His love of highend cars was born here with classmates arriving every day in fancy cars Interestingly till date he does not have a single piece of land in his name yet has acquired dozens of super cars along the wayWhen he was in class 10 he was greatly influenced by his classmates posh lifestyles He desperately wanted to be rich and live like they did He decided he was willing to go to any length for that said Aditya P a resident of Whitefield Bangalore who was among Sukeshs first victimsFingers chopped offIn 2007 at the age of 17 he tried his hand at crime for the first time cheating some influential people including a police officer in Bangalore But because it was his debut he tripped up and was caught within months by the people he had cheated To ensure he never forgot who he had messed with they chopped his fingers off That unfortunately only made him an even more determined criminal said Aditya He has excellent command over English Hindi Tamil and Kannada and flaunts his fleet of cars and armed guards He also has outstanding powers of persuasion Aditya saidA thorough criminalSukesh is thorough with his homework on potential targets Aditya said He knows how to identify those who are gullible greedy in need of money or in need of help or influenceAditya said I first met him at the gym He arrived one day with dozens of gunmen in tow and a fancy car He pretended to be Sukesh Reddy the son of Janardan Reddy who was the then transport minister In a few days he befriended me and some others at the gym and one day told us that every year on Pongal his family sold all old cars and bought new ones He offered to sell me one of his cars at just 25 per cent of its value I chose a Hyundai Accord for Rs 45 lakhHis con gameOne day he took me to his house in Bangalore which was lavishly decorated and had servants roaming around Impressed I paid him Rs 1 lakh in cash A few days later he claimed his father was demanding the remaining Rs 35 lakhWhen I told him that I did not have that much cash he took me to a jewellery shop and made me buy gold worth R35 lakh on my credit cards When we left the shop he called the shop owner and said he wanted to return the jewellery in exchange of cash When he added that he was the son of a minister the shop owner promptly gave Sukesh the money But despite paying up I never saw the carDisappeared one daySuddenly one day he stopped taking my calls After a few days when I visited his house I was shocked to find that it been rented by him and he hadnt even paid the Rs 1 lakh a month rent on it for three months He had also not paid the guards he had hired Aditya saidHe would constantly brag about being the relative of a big political leader He spun his stories with such detail that the ones he was conning would never dream that anything was amiss he saidPartner in crimeSukesh who started out alone eventually found a partner in crime A women who he had initially conned but who finally decided to join forces with him actor Leena Maria PaulIn 20092010 Sukesh befriended Leena through Facebook and quickly promised her roles in movies Although the actor called his bluff she stuck around enjoying his lavish lifestyleLeena cops said had initially come to Bangalore to learn dentistry but got lured by the idea of acting When Sukesh cheated her Leena tipped off the police in 2011 following which he was arrested On being released from jail he traced her and persuaded her to get into a relationship with himMumbai nextAfter cheating people in Chennai and Bangalore the two moved to Mumbai in 2014 and in 2015 Sukesh under the name Shekhar and Leena floated their Ponzi scheme duping 500 people They promised high returns on investments in their bogus firm Lion Oak India They also offered Nano cars and gifts and duped people of Rs 19 croreHe had posed as an MP from Bangalore and had a plush office in Goregaon He had 810 beefy guards with guns around him which was enough to convince his victims that he was wellconnected says one of the many doctors Sukesh had duped in MumbaiThe AIADMK deputy chief can take solace in the fact he got duped by one of the best in the business