Enforcement Directorate to name Jacqueline Fernandez as accused in conman money-laundering case

PTI

New Delhi, August 17

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has decided to name Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez as an accused in a multi-crore money-laundering case linked to alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar and others, officials said on Wednesday.

The federal probe agency is expected to file a fresh (supplementary) charge sheet or prosecution complaint in the case on Wednesday before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi and the actor has been arraigned in it as an accused, they said.

The 36-year-old actor has been questioned multiple times by the agency in the 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 in 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.”      

“Chandrasekhar had put Pinky Irani, his long-time associate and co-accused in the case to deliver the said gifts to her,” the ED had then said in a statement.