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

Mastermind: Shekhar Chandrashekhar

His 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 istriwallah.

Shekhar Chandrashekhar his partner in crime, actor Leena Maria Paul, who has starred in Madras Cafe

His high-jinks 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 AIADMK's poll symbol of two leaves. He had taken Rs 50 crore to ensure that the EC's decision would go in Dinakaran's favour.

Shekhar has tattooed Leena's name (circled)âÂÂu00c2u0080ÂÂu00c2u0088on his arm

Slippery customer
Cops 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 career.

His Maserati

'Karunanidhi's grandson'
Sukesh, 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 Karnataka's former chief minister BS Yedyurrappa. He uses gun-toting bodyguards and cars with red beacons to convince his targets that he has family connections in high places.

His opulent chair

Factory worker's son
In truth, his father was a rubber factory worker. His parents, however, had big dreams for him and enrolled him at Bangalore's Baldwin Boys School, attended by children from wealthy families.

One of his many high-end bikes

Sukesh was among a handful of very few poor students at the school. His love of high-end 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 way.

"When 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 Sukesh's first victims.

Fingers chopped off
"In 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 said.

A thorough criminal
Sukesh 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 influence.

Aditya 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 4.5 lakh."

His con game
"One 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 3.5 lakh.

"When I told him that I did not have that much cash, he took me to a jewellery shop and made me buy gold worth R3.5 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 car."

Disappeared one day
"Suddenly, 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 hadn't 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 said.

"He 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 said.

Partner in crime
Sukesh, 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 Paul.

In 2009-2010, Sukesh befriended Leena through Facebook and quickly promised her roles in movies. Although the actor called his bluff, she stuck around, enjoying his lavish lifestyle.

Leena, 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 him.

Mumbai next
After 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 crore.

He had posed as an MP from Bangalore and had a plush office in Goregaon. "He had 8-10 beefy guards with guns around him, which was enough to convince his victims that he was well-connected," says one of the many doctors Sukesh had duped in Mumbai.

The AIADMK deputy chief can take solace in the fact he got duped by one of the best in the business.