Court grants relief to actress Jacqueline Fernandez in money laundering case, gets permission to go abroad

New Delhi. Delhi’s Patiala House Court has allowed film actress Jacqueline Fernandez, co-accused in a Rs 200 crore money laundering case, to go abroad. Special Judge Shailendra Malik issued this order.

Jacqueline had sought permission to travel to Abu Dhabi to attend the IIFA Awards ceremony and to Italy for the shooting of the film. The court allowed Jacqueline to travel to Dubai from May 25 to 27 to attend the IIFA Awards and to Italy from May 28 to June 12 for the shooting of the film. On Tuesday, the main accused in the case Sukesh Chandrasekhar and his wife Maria Paul appeared in the Patiala House Court. Along with this, the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) filed a forensic report in the court in this case. The court will hear this report on June 6.

Earlier on April 6, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a supplementary charge sheet in this case. In the supplementary charge sheet, the ED has accused Tihar Jail officials D.S. Meena, Sunder Bora and Mahesh Saundriyal have been made accused. All three are currently in judicial custody. On February 14, the court had directed the ED to auction 26 vehicles seized during the probe in the case.

Film actress Nora Fatehi had recorded her statement on January 13 in this case due to interaction and receiving gifts from Sukesh Chandrasekhar. On January 3, actress Chahat Khanna had recorded her statement in this matter. EOW has made Chahat Khanna its witness. According to the Economic Offenses Wing, Chahat Khanna used to visit Sukesh Chandrasekhar in Tihar Jail. Chahat Khanna was given two lakh rupees and an expensive watch by Sukesh. Sukesh had admitted that he had taken Rs 57 crore from Aditi Singh, wife of Shivendra Singh, while investigation found that he had taken Rs 80 crore. The ED had said that Sukesh was the mastermind of the case. With the money taken from Aditi, he tried to get close to some Bollywood actresses by giving expensive gifts. Due to this, the names of Nora Fatehi and Jacqueline Fernandes are in discussion.

On August 17, 2022, the ED filed a supplementary charge sheet. The ED has made Jacqueline an accused in the supplementary charge sheet. On August 31, 2022, the court took cognizance of the supplementary charge sheet filed against Jacqueline Fernandez. The court granted bail to Jacqueline on November 15, 2022. In April, the ED attached property worth Rs 7 crore of Jacqueline in this case. According to the ED’s charge sheet, Sukesh Chandrasekhar, the main accused in the case, had given gifts worth more than Rs 5 crore 71 lakh to Jacqueline. Sukesh used to deliver gifts to Jacqueline through his associate Pinky Irani. These gifts also include a horse worth Rs 52 lakh and a Parsi cat worth Rs 9 lakh.