Jailed Sukesh Chandrashekar’s high end vehicles to be auctioned by IT department in Bengaluru

PTI, Nov 23, 2023, 4:53 PM IST

The high end and luxury vehicles owned by jailed alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekar will be auctioned next week by the Income Tax Department in Bengaluru as part of efforts to recover the dues he owes to several institutions, sources said on Thursday.

According to the IT department sources, 11 such cars and a bike would be up for e-auction on November 28.

The cars which would be up for auction are BMW M5, Toyota Prado, Range Rover, Lamborghini, Jaguar XKR Coupe, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Innova Crysta, Toyota Fortuner, Nissan Teana and Porsche. Besides these 11 cars, the IT department would also be auctioning his (Sukesh’s) sports cruiser bike – Ducati Diavel. Citing a notice issued by the department, sources said the price of these vehicles ranges from Rs 2.03 lakh to Rs 1.74 crore.

These vehicles seized by the department from different parts of the country including Kerala and Tamil Nadu will be auctioned online. At present, these vehicles stated to be in ”good condition” by the department have been kept at Central Revenue building for inspection till Friday, sources said.

Sources claimed that as of November 10, Chandrashekhar owes Rs 308.48 crore dues to various government institutions. ”These vehicles owned by Sukesh were seized from various parts of the country including Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the year 2018 by the IT department. He owes dues worth several crores (of rupees) to various government institutions, so we decided to recover those dues by putting these high end vehicles for auction,” the sources said.

Chandrashekhar who is currently lodged in a Delhi Jail has been accused of impersonating top government officials in order to extort about Rs 200 crore from Aditi Singh, the wife of Shivinder Mohan Singh, the former owner of pharma major Ranbaxy. The alleged conman was claimed to have scammed Aditi Singh with the promise of securing the release of her husband who was in jail in a money laundering case.

Meanwhile, Chandrashekhar is also being probed by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.