New Delhi: Actor Jacqueline Fernandez was made an accused in the Sukesh Chandrashekhar extortion racket following attachment of her assets earlier in April this year worth Rs 7.3 crores. She had benefited from acquiring properties to expensive cars and bank deposits from the ‘proceeds of crime’.

The agency had earlier claimed that the conman had transferred more than Rs 1.5 crores to family members of Fernandez in foreign accounts using hawala dealers.

Fernandez was last questioned by the ED on June 27 this year at its Delhi office in connection with the conman spending over Rs 20 crore on luxury properties, bribing prison staff and offering expensive gifts to Bollywood actresses and models.

The agency is investigating the extortion syndicate of Chandrashekhar who is allegedly trying to create ‘circumstances’ for his shift from Delhi’s Tihar jail to some other state prison by appealing in the Supreme Court. So far, the ED has arrested eight persons in the money laundering case against Chandrashekhar, including his wife Leena Maria Paul and associate Pinki Irani.

The conman, while he was lodged in a Delhi prison, extorted Rs 200 crores from a businessman’s wife tricking her by claiming to ‘manage’ home ministry and ED officials for the release of her husband.

Fernandez has been questioned four times by the agency. The officials have details of financial transactions that show the actress received huge cash and other gifts from the conman. Earlier this year, the agency had attached fixed deposits worth Rs 7.12 crores and Rs 15 lakhs cash belonging to the actor.

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has decided to name Jacqueline Fernandez as an accused in a multi-crore money laundering case linked to alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekar and others, officials said on Wednesday. The federal probe agency reportedly filed a fresh (supplementary) chargesheet or prosecution complaint in this case before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi on Wednesday and the actress has been arraigned in it as an accused, they said.

The 36-year-old actress, a Sri Lanka national, has been questioned multiple times by the agency in the case, the last being in June. The ED in April provisionally attached Rs. 7.27 crores assets of the actress under the PMLA apart from Rs. 15 lakh cash, as the agency called these funds “proceeds of crime”. 

“Sukesh Chandrasekar had given various gifts worth Rs. 5.71 crores to Fernandez from the proceeds of crime generated by criminal activities, including extortion. Chandrasekar had Pinky Irani, his longtime associate and co-accused in this case, deliver the said gifts to her,” the ED had then said in a statement.

In addition to these gifts, it said, Chandrasekar also gave “funds to the tune of USD 1,72,913 (about Rs. 1.3 crores as per current exchange rate) and AUD 26,740 (₹14 lakhs, approx) to the close family members of Fernandez out of the proceeds of crime through co-accused Avtar Singh Kochhar, an established and well known international hawala operator.”

The agency said its probe also found that Chandrasekar had “delivered cash to the tune of Rs. 15 lakhs to a script writer on behalf of Fernandez as advance for writing a script of her web series project.”

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

The federal agency filed a supplementary charge sheet or prosecution complaint in the case before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi, and the actor has been arraigned in it as an accused.

Fernandez, 36, has been questioned multiple times by the agency in this case, the last being in June. In April, the ED provisionally attached Rs. 7.27 crores funds of the actor, a Sri Lankan national, under PMLA, apart from ₹15 lakh cash as the agency called these funds as “proceeds of crime”.

“Sukesh Chandrasekhar had given various gifts worth Rs. 5.71 crores to Jacqueline Fernandez from the proceeds of crime generated by criminal activities including extortion. He had put Pinky Irani, his long-time associate and co-accused in this case to deliver the gifts to Fernandez,” the ED had stated then.

There was no reaction from Fernandez till the time of going to press.