Conman Case: Actress Jacqueline Fernandez Appears For Questioning

Conman Case
Conman Case

Conman Case: The agency had in April provisionally attached the Bollywood actor’s ₹7.27 crore fund under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Actress Jacqueline Fernandez on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for fresh rounds of questioning in the money laundering case involving alleged thug Sukesh Chandrashekhar and others.

Conman Case: The agency had in April provisionally attached the Bollywood actor’s ₹7.27 crore fund under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The 36-year-old actor has already been questioned two-three times by the agency in the said case.

Officials said the actress was issued fresh summons to record her statement on Monday as the agency is ascertaining the remaining proceeds of crime in the case.

Conman Case: An interim order was issued against him for attachment of fixed deposits of ` 7.12 crore besides ` 15 lakh in cash as the agency called these funds as “proceeds of crime”.

“Sukesh Chandrashekhar had given various gifts of ` 5.71 crore to Jacqueline Fernandez out of proceeds of crime arising out of criminal activities including extortion.

The ED had then said in a statement, “Chandrashekhar had hired his longtime associate and co-accused in this case, Pinky Irani, to give the said gift.”

In addition to these gifts, Mr. Chandrashekhar also donated an amount of USD 1, 72,913 (approximately ₹1.3 crore as per current exchange rate) and AUD 26740 (approximately ₹14 lakh) to “close family members”. Ms. Fernandez’s co-accused Avtar Singh is out of proceeds of crime through Kochhar, an established and well-known international hawala operator.”

Conman Case: The agency said that its investigation found that Mr. Chandrashekhar had “given a cash advance of ₹15 lakh on behalf of Ms. Fernandez to a screenwriter for writing the script of his webseries project.”

Ms. Fernandez is a Sri Lankan national and made her debut in the Hindi film industry in 2009.

The ED has alleged that Mr Chandrashekhar used illegal money to buy gifts for Ms Fernandez, which he had extorted by duping high-profile people including Aditi Singh, wife of Shivinder Mohan Singh, former promoter of Fortis Healthcare.

He is alleged to have impersonated Aditi Singh and her sister as Union Home Secretary and Law Secretary over the phone.

Conman Case: The ED said its probe found that a person was “contacting people through spoofing calls to dupe people as the numbers appearing on his phone belonged to government officials and he had claimed to be a government official who was duping people”. Was offering to help at a cost.”

“Adopting this methodology, the said person approached Aditi Singh, wife of Shivinder Mohan Singh, impersonated as Union Home Secretary, Union Law Secretary, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) officer and other junior officers and received ₹ 200 crores in a period of one year from them on the pretext of contributing to the party fund.

“The said person was a thug Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who was running his illegal extortion business from the Central Jail in Delhi (Tihar Jail) in connivance with the jail authorities,” the ED said.

Conman Case: The actor, in his statement recorded in August and October last year, told ED that he received gifts like three designer bags from Gucci, Chanel and two Gucci outfits for gym wear, one pair of Louis Vuitton shoes, and two pairs of gifts. Diamond earrings and a bracelet of multicolored stones and two Hermes bracelets by Sri Chandrasekhar.

Ms. Fernandez further said that she returned a Mini Cooper car that she had found similarly.

The agency, in its investigation, found that Mr. Chandrashekhar was in “regular contact” with Ms. Fernandez from February until she was arrested (by Delhi Police) on August 7 last year.