Conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar gets 8-year jail for posing as SC judge; moves Delhi HC

A city court sentenced alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar to an eight-year jail term for impersonating a Supreme Court judge in an attempt to influence a special judge to grant bail in a 2017 corruption case, The New Indian Express reported.

According to the news outlet, Chandrasekhar was awarded a two-year jail term each for impersonating a public servant (Indian Penal Code Section 170) and threatening injury to a public servant (Section 187). He was sentenced to another four years in jail for criminal intimidation (Section 507 of the IPC).

Detailing his conduct, the trial court said Chandrasekhar had first impersonated the private secretary of a then-Supreme Court judge, and later the judge himself.

It held that the prosecution had established beyond a reasonable doubt that Chandrasekhar had deliberately assumed the identity of a Supreme Court judge to interfere with the administration of justice.

Passing the order on August 20, Chief Judicial Magistrate Harshita Mishra of Delhi’s Tis Hazari Court described his crime as a "direct affront" to the independence and sanctity of the judicial process.

She stated that the sentence “must necessarily carry a deterrent message” to ensure that calculated criminality, particularly against the administration of justice, invites consequences equal to its gravity.

The trial judge also emphasised that the case was qualitatively different from an ordinary cheating or impersonation matter. The alleged conduct, she noted, sought to undermine judicial independence by using the authority of the country's highest court to influence another judicial officer.

“A courtroom may be entered through its doors, but justice cannot be entered through the back door of impersonation, intimidation or manufactured authority. The accused attempted precisely such a backdoor entry into the judicial process. The evidence has closed that door,” Judge Mishra said.

Chandrasekhar will be entitled to the benefit of the period already undergone in custody.

What is the case?

The case arose from a phone call made on 28 April 2017, when Chandrasekhar was in police custody in connection with the corruption case.

According to the prosecution, he obtained access to the mobile phone of police constable Manjeet and used it to contact the official landline and mobile phone of Poonam Chaudhary, then a special judge dealing with Prevention of Corruption Act cases.

Sukesh moves Delhi HC

Sukesh Chandrasekhar has moved the Delhi High Court against a trial court decision convicting him and has sought deletion of the "derogatory, pejorative, stigmatic and unnecessary observations" on his character in the judgment.

He has said in his plea that the trial court has repeatedly characterised him in terms that are "wholly unnecessary for adjudication".

Chandrasekhar has asserted that the trial court's judgment is contrary to the fundamental requirement that a case must be adjudicated upon evidence and not on an assumed character of the accused.

The trial court approached the case with a "predetermined and adverse mindset", and denied him the opportunity to complete defence evidence, the plea has said.

(With PTI inputs)