Delhi HC seeks police's stand on plea by Sukesh aide against framing of charges in extortion case

New Delhi, Jul 8 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought Delhi Police's stand on a petition by a close aide of alleged fraudster Sukesh Chandrasekhar, challenging the framing of charges against her in a Rs 200 crore extortion case. The trial court on June 3 framed charges against Chandrashekar, Pinky Irani and 19 others for various offences, including under the stringent MCOCA provisions.  Justice Madhu Jain issued notice to Delhi Police on Irani's revision petition assailing the trial court order and granted two weeks to the investigating agency to file its response.    The bench also issued notice on Irani's plea seeking a stay on the trial court proceedings and listed the matter for further hearing on September 10.    Irani's counsel argued that she has been wrongly charged in the case, asserting that there was no basis to sustain the MCOCA provisions against her.   He submitted that MCOCA could be invoked when there is an involvement in an IPC offence, which was admittedly not the case here. MCOCA, or the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999, is a law enacted to combat organised crime syndicates and terrorism. The act equips authorities with special powers to track, intercept and penalise gang-related criminal activities that normal penal codes fail to deter.  Delhi Police's senior counsel opposed the petition and sought time to file response. The trial court earlier ordered framing of charges against Chandrashekar for personating a public servant, extortion, cheating, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy, along with IT Act provisions and MCOCA sections for committing an organised crime and possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of members of an organised crime syndicate. Charges were directed to be framed against other accused persons as well for various penal offences, and under the IT Act and MCOCA provisions for committing organised crime. The police's charge sheet has alleged that Irani used to portray Chandrasekhar as a business tycoon and was instrumental in facilitating his meetings with certain Bollywood personalities.  It has stated that the police had recorded the statements of several people, including Bollywood actors Jacqueline Fernandez and Nora Fatehi.  Chandrasekhar, who is currently in jail, is accused of cheating many people, including high-profile individuals such as former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh's wife Aditi Singh.  Police has alleged that Chandrasekhar and his associates reportedly took money from Aditi after posing as government officials and promising to secure bail for her husband who was in jail in a money laundering case.  Chandrasekhar reportedly persuaded Aditi to transfer money by impersonating as a central government official over a spoof call while he was lodged in Rohini jail and promised to manage bail for her husband, it alleged. The high court had granted bail to Irani in the case on October 20, 2023. PTI ADS ZMN