Sukesh says ED ‘wrongly dragging’ Jacqueline in money laundering case

Sukesh Chandrashekhar, also the main accused in the case, issued a hand-written press statement from jail through his lawyer.

While a city court was hearing actor Jacqueline Fernandez’s bail plea in the ₹200 crore fraud case on Saturday, conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, also the main accused in the case, issued a hand-written press statement from jail through his lawyer.

Sukesh says ED ‘wrongly dragging’ Jacqueline in money laundering case

In his letter, Chandrashekhar said Fernandez and her family were dragged into the case and wrongly charged with money laundering by the Enforcement Directorate. Chandrashekhar’s counsel, advocate Anant Malik confirmed that the letter was issued by Chandrashekhar, who is currently in Delhi’s Mandoli jail.

“It is very unfortunate that Jacqueline has been made an accused in the PMLA case, as I have said very clearly before that we were in a relationship and if I have given her and her family gifts, what is their fault, she never asked me for anything except loving her and stand by her,” Chandrashekhar said in the letter.

The Enforcement Directorate in their last charge sheet charged Fernandez for money laundering. The ED also said that Fernandez did not disclose the facts truthfully and confessed only when the agency found evidence of Chadrashekhar’s gifts to her and her family members.

The actor had in her earlier submission to ED denied charges of helping Chandrashekhar and maintained she was duped by Chandrashekhar who posed as the owner of a prominent news channel. But ED told the court that Fernandez could easily have verified the false claims that Chandrashekhar made while posing as a top business man during his phone calls with her. The ED has alleged that Chandrashekhar sent expensive gifts to Fernandez, transferred money to her parents and even bought a house for her in Sri Lanka in 2021

Chandrashekhar in the press note on Saturday also wrote that he would contest Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and claimed that he was arrested in the case because of “political conspiracy.”

The 33-year-old is involved in at least 32 criminal cases across Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and other states. Between 2020 and early 2021, when he was in Delhi’s Rohini jail, the 32-year-old had pulled off a ₹200 crore heist by duping a city industrialist’s wife after posing as the union law secretary. Chandrashekhar took ₹200 crore extortion from jailed industrialist Shivinder Mohan’s wife, Aditi Singh. Police have alleged that he spoofed phone numbers, posed as a senior bureaucrat, and called Mohan’s wife Aditi with an offer to bail her jailed husband. Over two dozen jail officials, bankers, and other people have been arrested for the fraud so far.