ED attached assets amounting to Rs.7.27 Crore including Fixed deposits worth Rs.7.12 Crore of Jacqueline Fernandez under PMLA.
Press Release 30.04.2022
Enforcement Directorate(ED) has provisionally attached assets amounting to Rs.7.27 Crore including Fixed deposits worth Rs. 7.12 Crore of Jacqueline Fernandez under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in the case of Sukesh Chandrasekhar.
Investigation by ED revealed 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 thus, modus operandi, said person contacted Aditi Singh w/o Shivinder Mohan Singh by impersonating himself as Union Home Secretary, Union Law Secretary, officer from Prime Minister Office and junior officials and extorted more than Rs. 200 Crore from her over a period of 1 year on the pretext of contribution to party funds.
Investigation revealed that the said person was conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar who was running his illegal extortion business from Central Jail, Delhi in connivance with Jail officials.
During investigation, searches were conducted under PMLA at various premises all over India and properties seized viz. Bungalow in Chennai, 26 Cars, Indian currency, valuables etc valued at Rs. 45 Crore appx.
In this case, the accused Sukesh Chandrasekhar and 8 other persons including his wife Leena Maria Paul were arrested under PMLA and subsequently prosecution complaint has been filed before the Special PMLA Court, Patiala House Court against all 9 accused and cognizance has been taken by the Court.
During investigation, it was revealed that Sukesh Chandrasekhar had given various gifts worth Rs. 5.71 Crore to Jacqueline Fernandez from the proceeds of crime generated by criminal activities including extortion. Sukesh Chandrasekhar had put Pinky Irani, his long time associate and co-accused in this case to deliver the said gifts to her. In addition to these gifts, Sukesh Chandrasekhar had also given funds to the tune of USD 172913 and AUD 26740 to the close family members of Jacqueline Fernandez out of the proceeds of crime through co-accused Avtar Singh Kochhar, an established and well known international hawala operator.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar had also delivered cash to the tune of Rs. 15 Lacs to a script writer on behalf of Ms. Jacqueline Fernandez as advance for writing a script of her webseries project. This cash amount has also been attached.
Investigation with regards to tracing the remaining Proceeds of Crime is in progress.