New Delhi: Jailed conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar donned branded clothes and was available 24x7 on video call from inside his cell, actor Jacqueline Fernandez has claimed in a plea challenging freezing of her assets after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) named her in money-laundering cases linked to him.

In her plea before PMLA’s Adjudicating Authority in Delhi, Fernandez has claimed that she was a victim conned by Sukesh, and not an accused in the case as alleged by the ED. The actor has moved the appellant authority challenging attachment of assets worth Rs 7.12 crores by freezing her bank fixed deposits. Fernandez’s plea says the FDs have no nexus with crime and are deposits from her “own legitimate income”, much before knowing the main accused.

Fernandez said that after the initial contact was made where Chandrashekhar posed as an “important” man, most of her conversations with him took place over video call where he was seen wearing expensive clothing every time.

“He would wear a different attire every day, and it was all expensive brands. He would speak from a corner in his room, which was like a couch-setting with a curtain in the background,” she wrote to the adjudicating authority.

“He used to claim that he was working at his factory for a few months in Noida, the signal there was very bad, and this was the only corner where he would get a good signal. These calls would start in the morning and would go on till the end of the day. Chandrashekhar was accessible from morning till night. In fact, he would be available 24x7 on video call (sic),” she claimed.

For any lay person, “the jail would not have a leisurely treatment with access to video calls and expensive clothes; it would be more gruesome with small rooms, uniforms, concrete walls and no access to phone, let alone the iPhone and iPad that Chandrashekhar would always have around while speaking with the respondent”, her reply states.

It also termed as “surprising” that while other celebrities—notably Norah Fatehi—were also conned by Chandrashekhar, only Fernandez was dragged into the matter as an accused.