Actor Jacqueline Fernandez has filed a petition in Delhi High Court, seeking that the case against her by the Enforcement Directorate be dismissed. Ms Fernandez is accused in a Rs 200 crore money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar. She was made an accused in the case in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central agency.
In the petition she has claimed that the money laundering allegations against her are false. Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who cheated Aditi Singh of Rs 200 crore, also trapped her, she has claimed.
Ms Fernandez has been accused of enjoying the proceeds of the alleged extortion of 200 crore from Aditi Singh, the wife of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Singh.
In October 2019, Shivinder Singh was arrested in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar allegedly posing as a Central government official, persuaded Aditi Singh to pay him, promising to secure his bail.
He ran the scam from jail and convinced her by repeated phone calls to transfer the money.
“The petitioner is an innocent victim of Sukesh Chandrasekhar’s maliciously targeted attack. There is absolutely no indication that she had any involvement whatsoever in aiding him to launder his purportedly ill-gotten wealth. Hence she cannot be prosecuted… under the prevention of money laundering Act,” the petition read.
The petition claimed that one of the accused, Pinki Irani, had introduced Sukesh Chandrasekhar to Ms Fernandes as a fan who was connected to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, owned a production house and wanted to make a movie starring her.
Pinki Irani, the petition said, also compelled her to accept gifts from Chandrasekhar and tried to push her into a relationship with him. For this, she was offered Rs 12 crore.
At the time, Sukesh Chandrasekhar was in jail, but Pinki Irani has shown the actor photos of him in private jets and “roaming as a free man”.
The petition contended that the Central agency had contended that she “might have known” he was in jail and still accepted gifts from him and so they have named her as an accused in the money laundering case.
