The investigation into alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar’s activities while he was lodged in Tihar jail has thrown up a number of showbiz names apart from those of actresses Jacqueline Fernandez and Nora Fatehi. These include Chahatt Khanna, Nikki Tamboli, Sophia Singh and Arusha Patil, some of whom reportedly met him in jail, where he is said to have posed as a film producer.

Chahatt, who recently recorded her statement before Delhi’s Patiala House Court, has spoken exclusively to us and alleged that a web of lies and threats engulfed her after she got tricked into visiting Sukesh in jail. She also claims that she was blackmailed repeatedly, and forced to pay a ransom to save her name. “I am a victim and have suffered and I want the world to know my side of the story,” she tells us.

Chahatt says that in May 2018 she got a call to attend a school event in Delhi as a judge. “I travelled to Delhi on May 18, 2018. At Mumbai airport, I met a woman named Angel Khan, who said she would accompany me to the event. When we landed in Delhi, we took a car to go to the school. But after a while, we suddenly stopped and she said that we would have to change cars, as this one would not be allowed inside the school premises. We then moved to a grey Innova and within a few seconds, I realised we were outside the Tihar jail. When I asked her about this, she said we had to enter the school via the jail premises.”

Angel is reportedly one of the aliases of Pinky Irani, who allegedly introduced several actresses to Sukesh. She was first arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021 and then by the Delhi Police last year to probe her involvement in the 200 crore extortion case against Sukesh.

Chahatt says that after realising that she was in Tihar, she started yelling and asked for the car to be stopped, but the woman kept pacifying her, and before she knew it, they were inside Tihar jail. “I knew I was trapped and started panicking, thinking about my two kids, who were in Mumbai with my parents. Once we got off the car, we were taken to a room. I remember the room was full of laptops, watches and expensive luxury items. Aur duniya bhar ke branded bags thay... itne thay ki koi ek gir jaata toh sab gir jaate. There was a sofa, a portable AC, one chair, fridge... chhote se room mein sab kuch bhara hua tha,” she recalls.

In the room, Chahatt was introduced to a man who called himself Shekhar Reddy. She narrates: “He was dressed in a fancy shirt, had sprayed on a lot of perfume, and was wearing a gold chain. He introduced himself as the owner of a popular south Indian TV channel and the nephew of J Jayalalithaa. He said he had been arrested in an EVM tampering case during elections, but was being given VIP treatment in jail. He said he was a fan of mine and had watched my TV show, Bade Acche Lagte Hain, and wanted to meet me. I was frantic and told him, ‘Why would you call me here? I have left my six-month-old baby at home and have come here thinking it’s an event.’ Then, before I knew it, he went down on one knee and said he wanted to marry me. I shouted at him, saying, ‘I am married and I have two kids.’ But he said my husband was not the right man for me and that he would be a father to my kids. I got so anxious that I started crying.”

Why didn’t Chahatt raise an alarm at that point? “I didn’t know what was going to happen next. What if someone caught me inside Tihar jail, what would I say? What if they put me behind bars? Mujhe yeh prove karte karte 10 saal lag jaate ki main prisoner nahi hoon, mujhe bahar se laya gaya tha wahan. I had to somehow get out of that place and get back home; that was the only thing on my mind. There were a couple of men in civil clothes who had escorted us inside. Angel held my hand and told me to look down while walking in as there were CCTV cameras. As far as I remember, there were no police officers around. Since this was a few years ago, I don’t clearly remember things.”

Chahatt reveals that Angel sat on the man’s lap and started blowing kisses at him, saying that he was her best friend. “Around that time, she took a selfie with me, though I kept telling her that I wanted to leave.”

Chahatt remembers leaving with Angel after spending 20-25 minutes inside the jail. “We went straight to the airport, and on the way, Angel gave me around 2 lakh, referring to it as ‘shagun’ and telling me that he had really liked me. I kept quiet because I wanted to get back home. At the airport, she also took off a Versace watch that she was wearing and gave it to me, calling it a ‘friendship gift’ from her. We had to spend the night at the airport because the flight was very delayed. It took off around 7 am,” she says.

Soon after she returned to Mumbai, Chahatt claims she started getting blackmailed by two unknown people. “These two men stopped my sister-in-law on the road and told her that they had footage of me inside Tihar jail, which they would give to a TV channel if we didn’t pay them 10 lakh. I started getting calls from an unknown number when I was at my parents’ residence in Virar. The caller said he had got the footage from government officials and would give it to a TV channel. I was certain Angel was behind this and called her, but she soon blocked me. I agreed to give them 3 lakh, for which I borrowed 1 lakh from my father. They asked me to leave the money at a spot in Virar, which I did. Till today, I don’t know who the guys were,” she says.

Looking back, does she feel she should not have paid the ransom? “I was helpless. I didn’t want anyone to know that I was in Tihar jail. I was also worried about it affecting my marriage, and so I agreed to give them the money. Among other things, it did take a toll on my marriage, and my husband and I separated. Maybe I should have approached the police and lodged a complaint. But things kept happening one after the other and I just wanted to get out of it.”

After May 2018, Chahatt says that Sukesh called her two or three times from jail. “He would call me from international numbers and claim that he could call me from any number – including my husband’s! These calls lasted for a minute or so and he would inquire about my kids and ask if I needed anything. I would say, ‘Thank you so much, but I don’t need anything.’ The last time he called was in December 2018, when I told him, ‘Don’t call me; I don’t appreciate this. We’ll talk when you come out of jail.’ We never exchanged messages. A year after the ransom incident, the woman I knew as Angel unblocked me and messaged me. She said she wanted to work together, but I stayed away from her. She would message a lot, but I would barely reply.”

Chahatt says it’s only one-and-a-half years ago, when her name came up in the case and ED summoned her, that she realised the man she had met in Tihar jail was Sukesh Chandrashekhar and the woman who called herself Angel was his aide, Pinky Irani. “I have given these details to the officials of Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing and Enforcement Directorate and also to Patiala House Court. I am sure officials have gone through my phone details and verified everything.”