Jacqueline Fernandez was on Monday granted interim bail by a Delhi court in a Rs 200 crore money laundering case against alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekar. Special Judge Shailendra Malik granted Fernandez the relief on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and posted the matter for further hearing on October 22.
Fernandez, who was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate several times in connection with the investigation, has been named as an accused for the first time in a second supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED.
The agency’s earlier chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet did not mention her as an accused. According to the ED, Fernandez and fellow actor Nora Fatehi had received luxury cars and other expensive gifts from Chandrashekar. The agency termed the gifts and properties as “proceeds” of crime.
News18 takes a look at the case as it stands today, the characters involved and the timeline of events that landed Bollywood names in trouble.
THE CONMAN AND THE CASE
Accused of duping the rich — businessmen, politicians and celebrities alike — multi-millionaire conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar hit the headlines after sleuths from the Enforcement Directorate landed at his luxurious sea-facing bungalow in Chennai in August 2021 in connection with a money-laundering case.
What was inside astonished them. To start with, the value of the bungalow ran into crores. It had a movie theatre, gym, swimming pool and rooftop recreational area, including a mini bar. All the rooms in the bungalow were furnished with expensive furniture and the dining room had a sprawling table.
A fleet of luxury cars — Lamborghini, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Bentley, Mercedes, BMW and Land Rover — were lined up outside the house, besides hundreds of pairs of expensive shoes found inside.
Born in a lower middle-class family in Bengaluru, Chandrashekar always dreamt of becoming a millionaire and started conning people from the age of 17. In 2007, he duped around 100 people of Rs 75 crore on the pretext of providing them jobs, posing as a high-ranking bureaucrat. After a few years, he also duped politician TTV Dinakaran of Rs 50 crore.
The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police arrested Chandrashekar based on Dinakaran’s complaint, following which he was lodged in Tihar Jail. But the conman allegedly continued to run his racket from inside the prison.
He is accused of extorting Rs 200 crore from the family of ex-Fortis Healthcare and Ranbaxy Lab promoters, Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh, from within the premises of the high-security prison. Chandrashekar was reportedly paying Rs 75 lakh per fortnight as bribe for a mobile phone inside the jail.
He allegedly called up Shivinder’s wife posing as Union Law Secretary Anoop Kumar and offered help in getting bail for her husband. In August 2020, he used a spoofing app to pretend that he was calling from then Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s home.
In November 2021, the Delhi Police filed a chargesheet against the conman, his wife Leena Maria Paul and 12 others in the extortion case. More than 30 criminal cases are reportedly registered against Chandrashekar and Leena and are pending before various courts.
A number of Bollywood actresses, including Jacqueline Fernandez and Nora Fatehi, have also been questioned in the case for alleged links to Chandrashekar. The case, in fact, gained prominence after it emerged that the celebrities received expensive gifts from the conman, with Chandrashekar even said to be in a relationship with Fernandez.
WHO’S WHO
Jacqueline Fernandez
Actress Jacqueline Fernandez is being investigated over allegations of receiving luxury gifts from Chandrashekar bought using the proceeds of crime. According to investigators, her gifts included luxury cars Maserati and a Porsche, which cost above Rs 1 crore. She also received a Mini Cooper Car which costs another Rs 50 lakh.
Fernandez allegedly also received four Persian cats, designer bags from Gucci and Chanel, and a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes. There were a total of 20 pieces of jewellery, 65 pairs of shoes, 47 cloth items, 32 bags, and 9 paintings, among other things, said sources.
The actor was questioned for over eight hours on September 14 by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police.
During the interrogation, the Housefull 3 actor admitted to having been in a relationship with Chandrashekar for six months but claimed that she did not know about his activities, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Investigation had reportedly revealed that Chandrashekar had offered a motorcycle to Fernandez’s agent Prashant on his birthday but he declined to take it. However, Chandrashekar left the two-wheeler and its keys at Prashant’s place, police had said earlier, adding that the vehicle was seized.
On August 17, the ED filed a chargesheet naming Fernandez as an accused in a multi-crore money laundering case linked to Chandrashekar.
Nora Fatehi
Dancer-actor Nora Fatehi was on September 15 questioned for nearly five hours by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing for the investigation in connection with an extortion case linked to Sukesh Chandrashekar.
Interrogation has revealed that Fatehi was approached by the conman’s associate Pinky Irani on behalf of Chandrashekar in January. Fatehi claimed that she went to attend the event in Chennai for a studio inauguration and Chandrashekar’s wife gifted her an expensive bag and a car, instead of a fee, an officer said.
However, Fatehi has never met Chandrashekar in person but they have had a limited conversation over WhatsApp and she was not aware of his illegal activities, the officer added.
Chandrashekar’s wife had insisted Fatehi take the car as a gift instead of charging a fee for the Chennai event, he said.
After the event, Chandrashekar repeatedly tried to contact Fatehi on phone but she became suspicious and broke all ties with him, the officer said.
In January this year, Irani had approached Fatehi’s brother-in-law and he received the gifted car instead of Fatehi due to certain legal constraints, he said, adding it is part of the investigation. “The car received as a gift was later sold by him,” the officer said.
Pinky Irani
Mumbai-based Pinky Irani was a close aide and friend of Chandrashekar and introduced him to Fernandez, say sources. The Delhi Police has also summoned Irani to join the investigation as she knew both of them.
Irani became the personal shopper of Chandrashekar and with the help of a video call (from jail), she purchased gifts for Fernandez from Christian Dior, LV, Hermès, etc. The shopping list includes — bags, shoes, watches, accessories, horse harness, saddle, and whip.
As per reports, Chandrashekar offered Rs 10 crore to Irani for sorting out differences between Fernandez as they had a fight around Valentine’s Day. He also gave a Tiffany diamond ring to propose to Fernandez, which had J&S as its initials.
Irani took many actresses/models to Tihar Jail in Delhi to introduce them to Chandrasekhar, whose names are withheld as they are witnesses. She introduced herself to these actresses/models as “Angel”.
A BMW car took these actresses/models to gate no. 3 of Tihar Jail, and further, an Innova car took them inside the jail to meet Chandrashekar. No security check was done and no IDs were asked by the Tihar Jail security. A huge amount of cash and gifts were given to these actresses, along with Gucci bags, Versace watch, LV Bags, Frank Muller watches, etc.
These actresses/models were told to keep their head down so that the CCTV does not record their faces. Interestingly, Sanjay Chandra of Unitech and jail staff of Tihar Jail allegedly escorted these actresses to Chandrashekar.
The ED probe also revealed that Chandrashekar tried to influence other actresses through Irani, including Bhumi Pednekar, Sara Ali Khan and Jhanvi Kapoor. Some of them received the gifts, while others denied. In total, Chandrashekar had spent Rs 20 crore since 2015 on various actresses/models.
As per the probe, Chandrashekar used to send a huge amount of money to Kerala through hawala and later payments were made for luxurious items by certain individuals in Kerala.
Leena Maria Paul
Sukesh Chandrashekar’s wife Leena Maria Paul began her career with Mohanlal-starrer Red Chillies in 2009 and has since then appeared in several films like Madras Café, Husbands in Goa, Cobra and Biriyani.
According to sources, Leena was possibly not only a beneficiary of the proceeds of her husband’s latest crime in which he took money from the wife of a former promoter of Religare Enterprises, Shivinder Mohan Singh, but also is the key to locating the money.
According to reports, she had trained to be a dentist in Bengaluru but later quit to pursue her love for cinema.
Paul was reportedly earlier arrested in 2013, along with Chandrashekar, for allegedly cheating a Chennai bank of Rs 19 crore. During Paul’s arrest, the police had recovered nine expensive cars and 81 expensive wristwatches.
Chandrasekhar and Paul were shifted to Mandoli jail in Delhi from Tihar jail last month after directions from the Supreme Court. Chandrashekar had moved the SC seeking transfer from Tihar to any other prison, claiming a threat to his life in the jail.
Nikki Tamboli
According to reports, actress Nikki (Nikita) Tamboli has told investigators that Pinky Irani introduced her to Sukesh Chandrashekar, who introduced himself as “Shekhar”.
“It was further revealed that on two occasions Nikita Tamboli met the accused, Sukesh Chandrashekar, inside the Tihar Jail, Delhi at his office, maintained there. During the first meeting in April 2018, the accused Pinky Irani received an amount to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in cash from Sukesh Chandrashekar, out of which she gave Rs 1.5 lakh to Nikita Tamboli. On the second occasion, after two to three weeks after her first meeting, she went alone to meet Sukesh Chandrashekar where she was given cash to the tune of Rs 2 lakh and one Gucci Bag by the accused Sukesh Chandrashekar,” the ED’s chargesheet reportedly said.
Tamboli has worked in Telugu and Tamil cinema, as well as Hindi television. She rose to fame after her appearance on the reality show Big Boss.
Chahatt Khanna
Television actress Chahatt Khanna, known for playing ‘Ayesha’ in Bade Achhe Lagte Hain from 2011 to 2015, told the ED she too was introduced to Sukesh Chandrashekar by Pinky Irani; to her Sukesh Chandrashekar posed as a south Indian movie producer.
She too allegedly met Sukesh inside the Tihar Jail, Delhi at his office, maintained there, for which Pinky Irani gave her Rs 2 lakh in cash and a blue Versace watch, ED sources said.
Sukesh told Chahatt that he has been framed in some election voting scam and would come out of jail in the next four to five days. He also claimed to be a relative of late politician J Jayalalithaa, said sources.
Sophia Singh
Television actress Sophia Singh was approached by Pinky in connection with work in a film. She allegedly met the conman twice in Tihar Jail.
While Rs 2 lakh was deposited in her bank account after the first meeting in May 2018, she got one LV Bag from Sukesh and received Rs 1.5 lakh into her bank account when she met him alone after 15 days, investigators say.
Sukesh had allegedly promised to sign her up for a film.
Arusha Patil
The actress told officials that she never met Sukesh and only spoke to him over WhatsApp for which she received Rs 5.20 lakh in December 2020, out of which she had transferred one lakh to Pinky Irani.
“He used to talk over WhatsApp (call, chat, and video call),” the ED chargesheet said.
Timeline of Jacqueline Fernandez’s Alleged Involvement
August 2021: In August last year, the ED summoned Jacqueline Fernandez for the first time in connection with the multi-crore money laundering investigation. The actor was examined for four hours in New Delhi as a witness in the case and her statement was recorded under the provisions of the PMLA. This had come after Sukesh was shifted from Rohini Jail to Tihar Jail for allegedly running an extortion racket from behind bars
September 2021: Fernandez was summoned once again by the ED for recording her statement in connection with the case. It was then reported that the actor was possibly one of the people conned by Sukesh Chandrashekar. He allegedly contacted the actor via caller ID spoofing from Tihar jail.
October 2021: In a sensational turn of events, the conman’s lawyer claimed that Jacqueline Fernandez was in a relationship with him. “Jacqueline and Sukesh were dating, these are my instructions… This is straight from the horse’s mouth,” Anant Malik, the lawyer representing Sukesh Chandrashekar, told the media.
However, Fernandez’s spokesperson categorically denied the allegations. “Jacqueline Fernandez is being called to testify as a witness by the ED. She has duly recorded her statements and in future will also be completely cooperating with the agency in the investigations. Jacqueline also categorically denies alleged slanderous statements made about the relationship with the involved couple (Sukesh and his wife Leena Maria Paul),” the actor’s representative said in a statement.
November 2021: Jacqueline Fernandez’s private photos with Sukesh Chandrashekar went viral on social media. The photo showed Sukesh kissing the actor on her cheek while taking a selfie. The photo was said to be taken between April and June last year when he was out on interim bail.
December 2021: Jacqueline Fernandez was stopped from flying abroad by ED officials at a private airport in Mumbai. Later, in its charge sheet, the ED stated that Fernandez received luxury cars and other expensive gifts from the conman. She, however, told the agency officials that though Chandrashekar lavished several expensive gifts on her, she wasn’t aware of the conman’s real identity at the time.
Chandrashekar allegedly made a “spoof” call replicating the office number of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to befriend her and claimed that he hailed from late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s “political family”, the ED said in the chargesheet.
January 2022: Another intimate photo of the duo went viral on social media. Soon after, the actor made a request to the media via an Instagram post to not circulate her private photos. “I’m currently going through a rough patch but I’m sure that my friends and fans will see me through it. It is with this trust that I would request my media friends to not circulate images of a nature that intrude my privacy and personal space,” Jacqueline Fernandez wrote on her Instagram page.
February 2022: Sukesh Chandrashekar came to Jacqueline Fernandez’s rescue as he expressed displeasure over the private photos being circulated on social media. In a purported letter to the media via his lawyer, Chandrashekar claimed that the circulation of these private and personal photographs was a breach of privacy. He emphasised that “the relationship was not based on any kind of monetary benefits like the way it’s projected, commented and trolled in a bad light”.
April 2022: The ED attached assets worth Rs 7.27 crore belonging to Jacqueline Fernandez in the money laundering case. The attached assets included a fixed deposit worth Rs 7.12 crore under the actor’s name.
May 2022: Jacqueline Fernandez was allowed by a Delhi court to travel abroad to attend the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards. She was earlier barred from leaving India by the ED.
August 2022: Jacqueline Fernandez was named an accused in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED against the conman. Later, a Delhi court summoned her in the case. Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh took cognizance of the supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED and asked the actress to appear before the court on September 26, 2022.
September 2022: Jacqueline has been summoned by the Delhi Police thrice this month. Delhi Police earlier postponed her questioning scheduled on September 12 as the actress cited prior commitments and asked for a date after 15 days. However, Delhi Police rejected her request and asked her to join the investigation on September 14. On September, she was granted interim bail by a Delhi court.
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