A Delhi court has sentenced conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar to eight years in jail for impersonating a Supreme Court judge during a bail proceeding, terming the act “institutional sacrilege” and a possible attack on the very integrity of the judicial process.
In its sentencing order, the court said the case was “profoundly disturbing” and qualitatively different from other cases of impersonation as it struck at the root of one of the foundational pillars of a democratic state, the judiciary.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Harshita Mishra was hearing arguments on sentence against Chandrashekhar. She awarded him two years’ rigorous imprisonment each for impersonating a public servant and intimidating a public servant, and four years for criminal intimidation through anonymous communication. The court directed all the substantive sentences to run consecutively, making the total sentence eight years.
In an order dated August 29, which was made available today, the court said, “The deliberate, calculated and deceptive manner in which the offences were committed by the convict in this case warrants a sentence commensurate with the gravity of the attack upon the rule of law and the administration of justice.
On August 20, the trial court held Chandrasekhar guilty of the offences under IPC sections 170 (personating a public servant), 189 (threat of injury to a public servant) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), and described his crime as a “direct affront” to the independence and sanctity of the judicial process. In its sentencing order, the court said the case was “profoundly disturbing” and qualitatively different from other cases of impersonation as it struck at the root of one of the foundational pillars of a democratic state, the judiciary. 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 special judge dealing with Prevention of Corruption Act cases, according to the prosecution.
