Delhi Court Seeks ED's Response On Jacqueline Fernandez's Plea To Turn Approver In Rs. 200 Crore Money Laundering Case

A Delhi Court on Friday issued notice on a plea filed by Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez to turn approver in the Rs. 200 crores money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar.

Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma of Patiala House Courts sought response of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and listed the matter for hearing next on April 20.

The actress was summoned by ED several times and was named as a co-accused for the first time in a supplementary chargesheet. She was arraigned as the tenth accused in the case.

In July last year, the Delhi High Court had dismissed her plea seeking quashing of the PMLA case, observing that her apprehension that any evidence would be self-incriminating cannot lead to quashing of the ECIR as statutory and constitutional protections are already provided and will have to be assessed in that rubric.

In September last year, her SLP against the High Court's dismissal was rejected by the Supreme Court. She was given liberty to approach the Court at appropriate stage.

In her plea, the actress had said that the evidence filed by ED would prove that she is an “innocent victim” of Sukesh's “maliciously targeted attack.”

She said that it was an admitted case of ED that the Tihar jail officials provided Sukesh unrestricted access to mobile phones and other technology, which was used by him to con the original complainant and many film artists, including her, with an identical modus operandi.

It was also submitted that once ED, in its discretion, had presented Fernandez as a prosecution witness in the predicate offence, it logically followed that any proceedings arising as a consequence of the same should be quashed.

Before the Apex Court, Fernandez contended that she is a prosecution witness in the predicate offense and that Sukesh and his aide Pinky Irani made several efforts to dupe her into believing that Sukesh was a successful businessman who was often politically targeted.