Actor Jacqueline Fernandez on Monday failed to get relief from the Supreme Court, which refused to interfere with an order dismissing her plea to quash an ECIR (equivalent to FIR) in a Rs 200 crore money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar.
“You withdraw this. Come at an appropriate stage. That would be the better option. We will not interfere at this stage,” a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih told senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represented Fernandez.
Fernandez, in her plea filed through advocate Sumeer Sodhi, challenged the Delhi High Court’s July 3 order which dismissed her petition for quashing the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in the money laundering case.
Fernandez is an accused in the case against Chandrasekhar and has appeared before the Enforcement Directorate. Delhi Police booked Chandrasekhar for allegedly duping the spouses of former promoters of Ranbaxy, Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh of Rs 200 crore. On Monday, Rohatgi said Chandrasekhar, who is jailed, was accused of impersonating ministers and senior secretaries to the Government of India. Rohatgi said there was no allegation that Fernandez helped Chandrasekhar in laundering of Rs 200 crore. Referring to the allegations, Rohatgi said his client was a film star, with whom alleged conman Chandrasekhar was “actually infatuated”. “I did not know originally that he was in jail,” Rohatgi said, pointing out Chandrasekhar sent her gifts. Rohatgi said Fernandez was not an accused in the predicate offence of alleged extortion. Fernandez, it was alleged, received gifts worth at least Rs 5.71 crore from Chandrasekhar, knowing fully well of his criminal antecedents. Rohatgi said the prosection’s case was that the actor should have been more careful.
The bench referred to the top court’s Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgment which upheld the ED’s powers related to arrest; attachment of property involved in money laundering besides search and seize under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
