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INDIA: Actress Jacqueline Fernandez has been named as an accused in a chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar in a Rs. 200 crore extortion case. In the supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED in a Delhi Court, the actress has been accused of money laundering.
The ED is probing the money laundering case against Chandrashekhar, who was earlier arrested by Delhi Police for the alleged extortion of around Rs.215 crore from Shivinder Singh, former promoter of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, and his wife Aditi Singh.
According to the central probe agency, Chandrashekhar allegedly used the swindled money to give Ms Fernandez gifts worth over Rs.5 crore. The ED has alleged that the actor was aware that the gifts have been bought using swindled money.
The 37-year-old actor has been questioned multiple times by the agency in this case, the last being in June.
The actor, a Sri Lanka national, debuted in the Hindi film industry in 2009. The ED in April provisionally attached Rs.7.27 crore funds of the actor under the PMLA apart from Rs 15 lakh cash as the agency called these funds as “proceeds of crime”. “Sukesh Chandrasekhar had given various gifts worth Rs. 5.71 crore to Jacqueline Fernandez from the proceeds of crime generated by criminal activities including extortion,” the ED had then said in statement.
“Chandrasekhar had put Pinky Irani, his long-time associate and co-accused in this case, to deliver the said gifts to her,” the ED had said.
In addition to these gifts, it said, Chandrasekhar also gave “funds to the tune of USD 1,72,913 (about Rs 1.3 crore as per current exchange rate) and AUD 26740 (approx. Rs 14 lakhs) to the close family members of Fernandez out of the proceeds of crime through co-accused Avtar Singh Kochhar, an established and well known international hawala operator.”
The agency said its probe found that Chandrasekhar had “delivered cash to the tune of Rs 15 lakh to a writer on behalf of Fernandez as advance for writing a script of her web series project.” The ED has alleged that Chandrashekhar used illegal money to purchase gifts for Fernandez which he had extorted by cheating high-profile people including former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh’s wife Aditi Singh.
Thursday, August 18, 2022 – 01:21
