Rs 200 crore extortion case: Jacqueline Fernandez summoned to appear on Sept 14 by Delhi Police

New Delhi, Sep 12: The Delhi Police issued a fresh summon to Jacqueline Fernandez, who has been undergoing investigation in the Sukesh Chandrashekhar extortion case, to appear for questioning on 14 September.

The Delhi Police postponed their questioning scheduled on Monday as the actor cited prior commitments & asked for another date via email. However, she was asked to join the investigation on September 14.

A senior police officer had confirmed to ANI that due to prior commitments, the actress was not available. He added that she was summoned to join the investigation on September 12 at the EOW office at Mandir Marg around 11 am.

It must be noted that this is the third occasion that summons have been issued to Fernandez by the police to join the investigation.

Earlier, Delhi's Patiala House Court had also summoned Jacqueline directing her to appear in court on September 26. The court took cognizance of the supplementary chargesheet filed in the case that named the actress as an accused.

Meanwhile, Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named Jacqueline in their chargesheet into the money laundering cases that involve Sukesh. ED chargesheet stated that Jacqueline knew about Sukesh involvement in criminal cases. Still, she chose to overlook his criminal past and despite of that she got indulged in financial transactions with him.

ED had registered a case of money laundering in the alleged scam over the FIR registered by the Delhi Police.

The 37-year-old actor has been questioned multiple times by the agency in this case, the last being in June. The actor, a Sri Lanka national, debuted in the Hindi film industry in 2009.

The ED in April provisionally attached Rs 7.27 crore funds of the actor under the PMLA apart from Rs 15 lakh in cash as the agency called these funds as "proceeds of crime".

"Sukesh Chandrashekhar had given various gifts worth Rs 5.71 crore to Jacqueline Fernandez from the proceeds of crime generated by criminal activities including extortion," the ED had then said in a statement.

"Chandrasekhar had put Pinky Irani, his long-time associate and co-accused in this case, to deliver the said gifts to her," the ED had said.

In addition to these gifts, it said, Chandrashekhar also gave "funds to the tune of USD 1,72,913 (about Rs 1.3 crore as per current exchange rate) and AUD 26740 (approx. Rs 14 lakh) 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." The agency said its probe found that Chandrashekhar had "delivered cash to the tune of Rs 15 lakh to a writer on behalf of Fernandez as advance for writing a script of her web series project." The ED has alleged that Chandrashekhar used illegal money to purchase gifts for Fernandez which he had extorted by cheating high-profile people including former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh's wife Aditi Singh.

He is alleged to have conned Aditi Singh and her sister by impersonating as the Union home secretary and also as the Law secretary over phone.

The ED said its investigation found that a person "was contacting people spoofing calls to dupe them as the numbers reflecting on their phone were from government officers and he claimed to be a government officer offering to help people for a price." "Adopting this modus operandi, the said person contacted Aditi Singh, wife of Shivinder Mohan Singh, by impersonating himself as Union home secretary, Union law secretary, officer from prime minister's office (PMO) and other junior officials and extorted more than Rs 200 crore from her over a period of one year on the pretext of contribution to party funds." "The said person was conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar who was running his illegal extortion business from central jail in Delhi (Tihar jail) in connivance with jail officials," the ED said.

The actor told the ED, in her statement recorded in August and October last year, that she "received" gifts like three designer bags from Gucci, Chanel, two Gucci outfits for gym wear, a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes, two pairs of diamond earrings and a bracelet of multi-coloured stones and two Hermes bracelets from Chandrashekhar.

Fernandez further said she returned a Mini Cooper car which she had similarly received.

The agency found in its probe that Chandrashekhar was in "regular contact" with Fernandez from February until he was arrested on August 7 last year by the Delhi Police.

The ED has arrested eight people in this case till now including Chandrshekhar, his wife Leena Maria Paul, Pinky Irani, and has also filed two charge sheets before a Delhi court.