Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez is likely to be questioned by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing on Monday in connection with an extortion case linked to alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar. This is the second time that she has been summoned for questioning by Delhi Police for her alleged role in the case.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar, a native of Bengaluru in Karnataka, is currently lodged in a Delhi jail in alleged criminal cases and has 15 FIRs registered against him. The scamster is accused of running an extortion racket worth Rs 200 crore from inside the Tihar jail. In the past, he has duped people by promising them jobs.
Posing as a relative of a politician, he, reportedly, duped more than 100 people and cheated them to the tune of Rs 75 crore.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar has frequently made headlines in recent times, and not always for his scams, but also for the people he has allegedly been associated with.
Jacqueline Fernandez
Actress Jacqueline Fernandez is being investigated over allegations of receiving luxury gifts from Chandrasekhar 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 actress 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 Chandrasekhar 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 Chandrasekhar had offered a motorcycle to Fernandez’s agent Prashant on his birthday but he declined to take it. However, Chandrasekhar 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 Chandrasekhar.
Nora Fatehi
Dancer-actress 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 Chandrasekhar.
Interrogation has revealed that Fatehi was approached by the conman’s associate Pinky Irani on behalf of Chandrasekhar in January. Fatehi claimed that she went to attend the event in Chennai for a studio inauguration and Chandrasekhar’s wife gifted her an expensive bag and a car, instead of a fee, an officer said.
However, Fatehi has never met Chandrasekhar in person but they have had a limited conversation over WhatsApp and she was not aware of his illegal activities, the officer added.
Chandrasekhar’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, Chandrasekhar 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 Chandrasekhar 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 Chandrasekhar 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, Chandrasekhar 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 Chandrasekhar. 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 Chandrasekhar.
The ED probe also revealed that Chandrasekhar 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, Chandrasekhar had spent Rs 20 crore since 2015 on various actresses/models.
As per the probe, Chandrasekhar 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 Chandrasekhar’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 Sukesh’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 Chandrasekhar, 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. Chandrasekhar 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 Chandrasekhar, who introduced himself as “Shekhar”.
“It was further revealed that on two occasions Nikita Tamboli met the accused, Sukesh Chandrasekhar, 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 Chandrasekhar, 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 Chandrasekhar where she was given cash to the tune of Rs 2 lakh and one Gucci Bag by the accused Sukesh Chandrasekhar,” 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 Chandrasekhar by Pinky Irani; to her Sukesh Chandrasekhar 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.
With agency inputs
Read all the Latest News India and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment