Leena Maria Paul
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Leena Paul is…
Leena Maria Paul has acted in Hindi and Tamil films. In her native Kerala, they used to call her a one-film wonder. Nevertheless, she is a household name from Chhattarpur to Chennai and from Mumbai to Malabar because of her economic activities. (Chhattarpur is Delhi's ultra-affluent farmhouse area.)
Personal details
Born: 1988
Family: Based in Dubai. Her parents continue to work here.
Schooling: in Dubai.
College: Leena is a bachelor in dentistry, with a BDS
Early career: cinema, modelling
Leena returned to India, for a career in the glamour world, in 2011.
Conman Chandrashekhar helped her get modelling assignments in Mumbai and South India.
Sukesh and Leena Maria: a tumultuous love story: 2009-15
Excerpted from The love story of conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar and struggling Malayalee actress Leena Maria Paul | Asianet News
The duo first met in Bengaluru in 2009-2010 when Leena had come to learn dentistry. Sukesh was immediately taken by her and he promised her a life of luxury and cars and roles in films. Her dreams of becoming an actress started small, with minor roles in Malayalam cinema.
According to a report in the Indian Express, in 2011 Sukesh was arrested and interestingly, because of information provided by her. Leena claimed she too had been cheated by a conman. She broke ties with him but after he came out, he tracked her and pleaded with her to take him back. She relented.
Police say that after that the two became closer and she even became pregnant with his child and then aborted it. Apparently, both of them have their names tattooed on each other's hands. She has the name Balaji and he, Leena.
In 2015, the duo was again arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police in an alleged case of cheating. The case went through a lot of twists and turns as when investigation began Sukesh was just her live-in partner, half-way into the interrogation, there were reports of her confessing to be his wife.
A shadowy, parallel career
May 2013: arrest
Till 2011, Leena Maria Paul used to travel in a Maruti 800.
The Rolls Royce Phantom found at Leena Maria Paul’s residence
She was arrested in May 2013 from a rented farmhouse in Khari Farms in Fatehpur Beri, South Delhi, where Chandrashekhar and she had been staying for just a month.
Both Delhi and Chennai police officers were surprised to see the actress own a fleet of nine luxury cars. During the investigation, luxury cars, including Ashton Martin, Range Rover, BMW 530 D, Rolls Royce Phantom, Audi A4, worth ₹20 crore and 81 watches were seized from their property in Delhi.
The cars that the actress owned cost more than Rs 20 crore. Though the actress and her live-in partner Chandrashekhar were involved in a cheating case that gave them Rs 19 crore, the police suspect that some of the cars were stolen by the actress's friend Chandrashekhar.
Chandrashekhar managed to give police the slip in a Land Cruiser.
Chandrashekhar escaped from the farmhouse, taking advantage of the fact that one of the couple's drivers resembled him, at least in the eyes of Delhi’s North Indian policemen. While the police team was busy talking to the driver, assuming him to be Chandrashekhar, he slipped away. Chandrashekhar fled Delhi and went into hiding near the Indo-Nepal border, but used to come to Siliguri. The police team traced him in Siliguri and finally arrested him from a shopping mall in Kolkata, with diamond rings worth Rs 75 lakh, a Louis Vuitton bag worth Rs 3 lakh and an Apple iPhone in his possession.
In Chennai, Chandrashekhar had duped a man of Rs 19 crore by promising him a major favour through his contacts in the Karnataka government.
He posed as a government official and lured the man into taking a loan from Canara Bank. After the man was unable to repay the loan, the managing director of the bank, V. Jagadish, approached the police.
Officers suspect that the recovered cars might have been stolen by Chandrashekhar because all of them have registration numbers of different states. According to police sources, the registration number of at least one of the cars -- a Rolls Royce Phantom costing at least Rs 3.5 crore -- has been found to be wrong. Another car, a Nissan, is registered in the name of a resident of Delhi's Naraina area, Sohan Lal Ahuja.
The recovered Aston Martin has a West Bengal registration number.
Interestingly, the Land Cruiser in which Chandrashekhar fled had the sticker of the then ruling political party on it. He reportedly obtained the sticker from a minister's relative in Karnataka.
In Delhi’s affluent farmhouse region, Chandrashekhar drove a red-beacon vehicle and a Range Rover in Delhi to impress youths in the locality.
In Delhi he allegedly cheated a businessman of more than Rs 60 lakh posing as an IAS officer. He had also cheated three youths of money on the promise of getting them into Bollywood. He even allegedly posed as DMK chief M. Karunanidhi's grandson before gullible people.
Chandrashekhar allegedly took Rs 3 lakh from each of the three youths, who fell for his bait, on the promise of getting them film roles. He told them that he knew filmmakers in Chennai and could get them into Bollywood. To convince them, he boasted about getting his live-in partner Maria Paul a role in John Abraham's movie Madras Café.
2015: ₹10 crore cheating case
June
Intercontinental Business Times
The Mumbai Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested South Indian actress Leena Maria Paul and her partner Shekhar Chandrashekhar in connection to a ₹10 crore cheating case.
The duo, along with four others who helped them, went sent to the police custody after repeated complaints were reported to the Mumbai crime branch.
The duo, which began an investment firm, was arrested after they failed to keep their promises made to investors. The duo had reportedly claimed to return 10 times their investment within a short span of time.
2017: investigation agency drops all charges
'Madras Cafe' actress Leena Maria Paul stands vindicated - |Jan 27, 2017| Times of India
South actress Leena Maria Paul has a reason to smile. Her faith in the Indian judiciary system has finally paid off. The actress who maintained that she was falsely implicated in a scam three years ago says that she now stands vindicated.Through the better part of the investigation, Leena maintained a stoic silence. And she says that her patience, prayers and faith has helped her.
It is being said that the investigation agency allegedly dropped all the charges against her and have discharged her in the 2013 scam because they reportedly found no tangible evidence to prosecute her. She says that she always had faith in the judiciary and knew that justice would be rendered sooner or later. The actress adds that all the pain and insult does not hold any relevance to her as the truth is in the open.
Leena Maria Paul arrested again
Leena is elated as 2016 seems to be a fruitful year. She says, 'The pain you feel today is the strength you will feel tomorrow.' She maintains that she has become a stronger person and her innocence will be proven similarly in the 2015 legal battle, which also involves her husband Sekhar. She maintains having no role in this case and claims that she was falsely implicated in the same.
On the professional front, her television show that started airing on the 'Rosebowl South Indian Channel is a hit with the youth. Her personal style and aura is something which is widely admired.When quizzed about her ability to bounce back, she says, 'Failure is not in falling down but refusing to get up.'
2018: gunfire, underworld threat at her Kochi beauty parlour
Gun fired at beauty parlour in Ernakulam |Sat 15 Dec 2018| Kerala Kaumudi
KOCHI: Two anonymous persons who came on a bike fired gun at a beauty parlour in Kochi's busy Panampilly Nagar on Saturday afternoon.
The police have reached the place and have started investigation into the incident. They said that the shooters had demanded a ransom of Rs 25 crore and pulled the trigger in order to threaten the owners of the beauty parlour.
The CCTV visuals show the two men, wearing black jackets and helmet walking towards the parlour. Before they left, they also threw a paper in which something was scribbled.
The duo threatened the owner in the name of Mumbai underworld don Ravi Pujari.
The posh beauty parlour reportedly belongs to actress and bank fraud case accused Leena Maria Paul. She has acted in Red Chillies and Husband in Goa.
… Kerala HC rejects her Plea Seeking Police Security
On December 18, Leena Maria Paul had moved the court seeking a direction to police to provide her security, days after two men allegedly fired shots at the parlour.
The Kerala High Court Thursday declined to grant her police protection.
On December 18, Leena Maria Paul had moved the court seeking a direction to police to provide her security, days after two men allegedly fired shots at the parlour.
When the petition by the actress came up before the division bench of Justices PR Ramachandra Menon and N Anil Kumar, the Kerala government said there were three cases pending against her and they were gathering more details.
The government said she had the liberty to have private security, if required, which the court did not object.
Leena Maria Paul had submitted that she was willing to bear the expenses involved in providing her police protection.
The actress had alleged that she received threat calls on her mobile phone, demanding Rs. 25 crore on November 3 under instructions from notorious gangster Ravi Pujari. The caller had threatened to kill the actress if the money was not paid. The threat calls were made on subsequent dates also, she submitted.
Leena alleged that she has been receiving calls from someone, who identified himself as ‘Ravi Poojari’, since November 2018. “Initially, I ignored the calls. However, when the frequency of the calls increased, I sought legal opinion and we even recorded some calls.
However, by December first week, the calls stopped. At that time, a member of shadow police team from Kochi came to my office in Kochi and asked about the threatening calls. I thought the police might have come to know about the calls from their own sources and gave them all the details. He also warned me that there was a chance for a possible gun-fire attack against the saloon,” she said.
The actress was an accused in a bank fraud case and was associated with alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, now in Tihar jail in a matter related to a bid to bribe the Election Commission, involving Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader and RK Nagar MLA TTV Dinakaran.
2021, Aug: her boyfriend arrested after she is interrogated
ED quizzes conman’s actor GF, seizes crores of assets
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 23/ 24 Aug. 21
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized 16 high-end cars, a luxurious beachfront bungalow located in Chennai, Rs 82.5 lakh in cash and 2kg of gold in the money laundering case involving conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar
The seizures were made after ED officials quizzed Sukesh’s girlfriend, Leena Maria Paul, an actor in the 2013 film “Madras Cafe”. Police suspected she knew about a chunk of the extorted and laundered money. The case was lodged by the ED based on Delhi Police’s probe. The agency will take Sukesh on remand after his police custody ends.
Sept: Leena Maria arrested
Madras Cafe actor held in ₹200-crore extortion case/ Cops Suspect She Knows About Extorted & Laundered Money
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Two weeks after she was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police has arrested actor Leena Maria Paul in connection with the Rs 200-crore case of extortion from a well-known business family.
Police suspected that she knew about a chunk of the extorted and laundered money. The ED had registered the money laundering case based on police’s investigation. Chandrasekhar would be taken into custody by ED after police’s remand ends. Two of his associates, Deepak and Pradeep, and two jail officials were also arrested.
Chandrasekhar was using number spoofing through an app called “Crazy Call” to impersonate high-ranking government officials. He would call to strike deals and the victims would see the numbers on their phone screens as desired by him. In one of the last calls to a victim, he had impersonated the law secretary, a source said.
In her complaint, the victim said she received a call in June 2020 wherein the caller introduced himself as a secretary in the Union ministry of law. He proposed to help her in securing bail for her husband. This person demanded Rs 200 crore for getting the work done and conveyed the modalities regarding delivery of the money. The money was routed to Hong Kong-based entities, some shell firms, apart from properties allegedly bought by Paul. When the victim realised she had been duped, she contacted police and lodged a complaint.
Filmography
As an actor
2013 Madras Cafe
2013 Biriyani
2014? Red Chillies (opposite superstar Mohan Lal)
Husbands in Goa
Cobra
TV
TV serial "Chumma"
(In Tamil, chumma means 'just like that,'and not what it means in Hindi.)
