Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday grilled Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez in a money laundering case involving conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar.
Jacqueline appeared in front of ED post summons from the federal agency to record her statements related to the case.
Her assets worth ₹7.27crores were earlier attached by ED and a case was registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
According to reports, ED is currently looking at different possibilities that money was invested abroad and it was led by conman Chandrasekhar, who is already named in 21 different cases.
The ED case is based on an FIR lodged by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Chandrasekhar, who was contacting people by spoofing calls to dupe them as the numbers reflecting on their phones seemed to be from government officers and he claimed to be a government officer helping people for a price.
According to reports, it was revealed that Chandrasekhar had given various gifts worth Rs 5.71 crore to Fernandez from the proceeds of crime generated by criminal activities including extortion. Chandrasekhar had put Pinky Irani, his long-time associate, and co-accused in this case, to deliver these gifts to Fernandez.
The ED said, in addition to these gifts Chandrasekhar had also given funds to the tune of US Dollar 1,72,913 and 26,740 Australian dollars to the close family members of Fernandez out of the proceeds of crime through co-accused Avtar Singh Kochhar, an established and well-known international hawala operator.
Chandrasekhar had also delivered cash to the tune of Rs 15 lakhs to a scriptwriter on behalf of Fernandez as an advance for writing a script for her web series project. This cash amount has also been attached by the ED.
Another actress, Nora Fatehi was also questioned by the ED in connection with the same case.