Sukesh, a con artiste who ripped scores off crores posing as VIP kin

Sukesh Chandrasekhar, the young Bengalurean now at the centre of a sensational bribery attempt involving AIADMK (Amma) leader TTV Dinakaran, is not a novice to crime.

The 27-year-old has posed in the last seven years as DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s grandson, friend of former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy's son, former union minister T R Baalu’s son and nephew of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

He entered the world of crime in 2007 through cheating. Police in the national capital know him as one who managed to give them the slip four years ago, when they swooped in on a south Delhi farmhouse. His then actress-girlfriend Leena Maria Paul was arrested.

In 2007, he cheated a 75-year-old man in Bengaluru of Rs 1.14 crore, by promising to get a site allotted to him from Bangalore Development Authority.

Sukesh - with a fetish for luxury cars and watches - was later arrested in Kolkata for duping Canara Bank and scores of people to the tune of Rs 19 crore.

A drag-racer known for daring stunts, Sukesh drove around in cars with beacons and with bodyguards to convince his victims that he can help them in business or other deals. Sukesh, who also goes by the name Balaji, studied in Bishop Cotton School, Bengaluru. 

Investigators claimed that he has duped around 100 people across the country of around Rs 50 crore by posing as a relative of leading politicians. Sukesh has over four dozen cases against him.

He had stayed in a posh apartment in Koramangala, Bengaluru, in 2010, posing as the grandson of Karunanidhi, besides using the names of two IAS officers to push for a poultry contract. He had approached a Chennai businessman as Karunanidhi’s grandson.

His bluff was called, but only after he managed to fleece the businessman of Rs 1.49 lakh. He also managed to hoodwink a businessman in Bengaluru by posing as a JD(S) leader and friend of Kumaraswamy’s son.