Conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar was convicted by a Delhi court for impersonating a Supreme Court judge in order to secure bail in connection with a corruption case in 2017. In his attempt to pose as a sitting SC judge, the conman allegedly also threatened a judicial officer with professional repercussions if she failed to grant him bail.
According to a Bar and Bench report, Sukesh Chandrasekhar was convicted by Chief Judicial Magistrate Harshita Mishra of Tis Hazari Courts in Delhi and she described the incident as an “absurd theatrical production”, adding that the conman not only “crossed the line, but leapt over it”.
“In this most absurd theatrical production of his, where he impersonated a sitting Judge of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India to manipulate an ongoing proceeding, he did not merely cross the line; he leapt over it into the realm of fatal institutional overreach,” the court was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
Sukesh used constable’s phone to call judicial officer
Sukesh Chandrasekhar’s ruse involved a phone call to Special Judge Poonam Chaudhary, before whom a corruption case was pending while he was in police custody in April 2017.
The conman allegedly got access to a constable’s mobile phone and used it to call the judge’s official landline and personal phone number.
A caller first claimed to be the personal secretary of a Supreme Court judge, followed by another person who claimed to be the Supreme Court judge himself, saying he was calling on behalf of the Home Ministry and the Supreme Court Collegium.
The fake judge told judge Chaudhary to release Sukesh on bail immediately and threatened her with professional repercussions if she didn’t agree.
When she flagged the phone call with the Supreme Court, she was informed that no such call had been made.
“Orders are passed in courtrooms, not dictated over clandestine telephone calls. Judicial discretion is exercised on the basis of the judicial record, not on the basis of the caller’s designation,” the trial court observed on the incident.
The court also said that Sukesh overplayed his hand by trying to use his history of spoofing caller IDs for his advantage. “What Sukesh failed to calculate in his risk assessment is that the judiciary does not negotiate its authority with shadow callers,” the court was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.
Court slams Delhi Police
During the hearing, the court also rapped the Delhi Police for its “superficial and shoddy” investigation into how Chandrasekhar could orchestrate the failed impersonation.
Noting that the Delhi Police failed to recover the phone Sukesh used or even figure out how a constable’s mobile was obtained by the conman, the Delhi court said that the police dealt with the matter “with utter indifference, investigative naivete and apathy.”
The Delhi court found Sukesh guilty under Sections 170 (personating a public servant), 189 (threat of injury to a public servant) and 507 (criminal intimidation through anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code.