The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday attached assets worth Rs 7.27 crore of actor Jacqueline Fernandez in a money-laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar.
The central agency has attached a fixed deposit worth Rs 7.12 crore and Rs 15 lakh in cash, it said in a statement.
During its investigation, the Enforcement Directorate found that Chandrashekhar had been in regular contact with Fernandez since February last year till he was arrested by the Delhi Police on August 7. The agency has arrested nine persons in the case, including Chandrashekhar and his wife Leena Maria Paul. Two chargesheets have been filed in the matter.
The Enforcement Directorate has alleged that Chandrashekhar used money gained by cheating and extorting high-profile individuals to buy gifts for the actor, PTI reported.
In one such case of cheating, Chandrashekhar allegedly impersonated as the Union home secretary, law secretary and an officer in the prime minister’s office to extort more than Rs 200 crore in the name of “party funds” from Aditi Singh, the wife of Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh.
“Sukesh Chandrashekhar had given various gifts worth Rs 5.71 crore to Jacqueline Fernandez from the proceeds of crime generated by criminal activities including extortion,” the Enforcement Directorate said. “Chandrashekhar had put Pinky Irani, his long time associate and co-accused in this case to deliver the said gifts to her.”
He also gave $1,72,913 (about Rs 1.3 crore) and 26,740 Australian dollars (nearly Rs 14 lakh) to Fernandez’s family members “out of the proceeds of crime through co-accused Avtar Singh Kochhar, an established and well known international hawala operator”, the central agency alleged.
In two statements to the Enforcement Directorate recorded in August and October, Fernandez had told the agency that she received gifts like three designer bags from luxury brands Gucci and Chanel, two Gucci outfits, a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes, two pairs of diamond earrings and a bracelet of multi-coloured stones and two Hermes bracelets from Chandrashekhar.
The actor also said that she had returned a Mini Cooper car that Chandrashekhar had gifted her.
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