Delhi HC issues notice to ED in plea filed by Jacqueline Fernandez in money laundering case

The court also posted the case for the next hearing on January 29.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate on a plea filed by Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez seeking to quash the ECIR (FIR) and supplementary chargesheet filed by the agency in a ₹200 crore money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar. Fernandez has been a co-accused in the case filed by the ED. But she has been named as a witness in the predicate offence – an extortion case registered by the Delhi police.

ED’s FIR had stemmed from the extortion case filed by the Delhi police’s economic offences wing (EOW) in August last year against Chandrasekhar for allegedly cheating and extorting money from Aditi Singh, the wife of former promoter of Religare Enterprises Shivinder Mohan Singh.

Seeking to quash the ECIR dated August 8, 2021, second supplementary complaint dated August 17, 2022 and the proceedings emanating therefrom, the actress in her plea has stated that the evidence filed by ED proves that she is an innocent victim of Chandrasekhar’s maliciously targeted attack.

“There is absolutely no indication of her involvement in aiding him to launder his purportedly ill-gotten wealth,” read the plea.

The plea also stated that she instead was presented as a prosecution witness in the EOW case.

“Throughout their interactions, the main accused consistently presented himself as a free individual. The Petitioner had no way of knowing that the main accused was actually incarcerated, as his conduct always resembled that of a person at liberty,” the plea added.