Actor Jacqueline Fernandez has faced a setback after the Supreme Court refused to entertain her plea seeking to cancel the ₹215-crore money laundering case filed against her by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar.
Jacqueline Fernandez’s legal woes continue
The actor had moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay of trial after the Delhi High Court dismissed her quashing plea in July. As per Live Law India, on Monday, a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih dismissed Jacqueline’s petition. However, the bench granted her liberty to approach the court at an appropriate stage of the proceedings.
Mukul Rohatgi, who was representing the actor, submitted that the prosecution’s case is that she should have been more careful while accepting gifts from Sukesh. However, Justice Datta said that the law on this aspect is the ‘Vijay Madanlal Choudhary’ judgment, upholding the constitutionality of various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (“PMLA”).
Justice Datta said: “The allegation is that, it was given to you as gifts. Nothing has been proved. At the stage of framing of charges, you have to accept what is the allegation. We appreciate that the law is such that anyone can be involved. Take it as, they were two very close friends and now if one friend gives something to the other friend, ultimately if it is found that the other person is involved in a predicate offence, very difficult. That’s why we say, Vijay Madanlal has considered this part and we are bound by that.”
The court stated that the better option is you withdraw this and come at an appropriate stage.
It ordered: “Dismissed with liberty to approach the Court. The observations made in the impugned judgment were only for the purpose of disposing of the petition. At the time of framing of charges, the special court shall be at liberty to hear the petitioner and pass the order.”
Through her lawyer. Jacqueline said, “I am a film star. This man is a constar who is in jail. He is accused of impersonating ministers etc. he makes calls to people. He shows to various people from jail that as if he’s a minister somewhere and he’s not in jail. He tells the complainant who is a rich lady, whose husband was in jail. He says if you give me 200cr and I am secretary in govt etc I will get you bail. She says she has parted with money to Sukesh’s people. That’s the case. I have nothing to do with it. This man was infatuated with me. He sent gifts to me etc. bags. It is no allegation that I have helped him launder that 200cr. Please keep this in view. I am not named in the predicate offence in extortion. No part of that 200cr never came to me.”
What do we know about the ED case
The ED case stems from the extortion case filed by the economic offences wing (EOW) of Delhi Police in August 2022 against Chandrasekhar for allegedly cheating and extorting money from Aditi Singh, the wife of Shivinder Mohan Singh, a former promoter of Religare Enterprises, by posing as the Union law secretary and calling her with an offer to bail her jailed husband.
The alleged con job is being probed differently by the ED and EOW. While the EOW is probing allegations of fraud and corruption inside the jail, the ED is investigating the money laundering charges. The ED had named Fernandez as a co-accused in the case. In 2022, a trial court had granted Fernandez bail in the ED case, subject to her furnishing a personal bond of ₹2 lakh and one surety of the same amount.
