Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez has taken her case to the Delhi High Court, to seek the dismissal of a criminal case and an additional chargesheet presented by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case worth Rs. 200 crore involving conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar. The ED named her an accused in the case through a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central agency.
The actress has been accused of benefiting from the Rs. 200 crore extorted by Chandrasekhar from Aditi Singh, the wife of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Singh. In the petition, she has claimed that the accusations against her are false.
It started with ED's FIR filed by the Delhi Police's economic offences wing (EOW) in August 2022 against Chandrasekhar, for allegedly cheating and extorting money from Aditi Singh. Now, the 'Race 3' actress is trying to dismiss the complaint dated August 8, 2021, and then on August 17, 2022, along with all any related proceedings. In her plea, she states that the evidence presented by the ED proves her innocence.
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"The petitioner is an innocent victim of Sukesh Chandrasekhar's maliciously targeted attack. There is absolutely no indication of her involvement in aiding him to launder his purportedly ill-gotten wealth,” read the plea.
The petition also claimed that one of the accused, Pinki Irani, introduced Sukesh Chandrasekhar to the actress under the disguise of being a fan who knew former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, and expressing interest in casting her in a movie. The petition also said that Irani coerced the actress into accepting gifts from the conman and manipulated her into being in a relationship with him by offering her Rs. 12 crore. At that time, Sukesh Chandrasekhar was in jail, however, Pinki Irani purpotedly had shown her photos of him in private jets and "roaming as a free man".
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The Central agency countered saying that she "might have known" he was in jail and irrespective of it, accepted gifts from him. “Throughout their interactions, the main accused consistently presented himself as a free individual. The Petitioner had no way of knowing that the main accused was actually incarcerated, as his conduct always resembled that of a person at liberty,” the plea further added.
