ED summons Jacqueline Fernandez on December 8 in Rs 200cr money laundering case

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Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez has been once again summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). She is asked to appear before the investigators on December 8 in Delhi in connection with the ongoing probe in Rs 200 crore money laundering case linked to conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar. Earlier, the actress had skipped various summons issued by the agency citing different reasons. 

Fernandez has been asked to be present at the ED office by 11 am on December 8 as her questioning is significant in the case as a witness in the alleged multi-crore extortion racket operated by Chandrasekhar. 

The ED's move come a day after Fernandez was offloaded from an Air India flight at about 5.25 pm by Immigration Officials as a Look Out Circular in the case of the Enforcement Directorate is pending against her. She was supposed to fly to Muscat by "AI-985 flight scheduled at 5.5O pm on Sunday". 

The LOC was issued with directions that Fernandez should not be permitted to leave India. Earlier, the ED has questioned the actress here in August. The federal agency then recorded Fernandez's statement in its more than six-hour questioning here in August end. Another actress Nora Fatehi was also questioned by the ED here in connection with the same case for the second time on Thursday. ED is looking into various people who are directly or indirectly connected to this case.

Reports suggest that the ED is looking into the possibility that money was invested abroad and it was led by Chandrasekhar, who is accused in 21 cases. This ED case is based on an FIR filed by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Sukesh Chandrasekhar who is accused of cheating and extorting Aditi Singh, wife of the former promoter of Religare Enterprises Shivinder Mohan Singh, who was arrested in October 2019 in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd.

Chandrasekhar and his associates reportedly took money from Aditi after posing as government officials and promising to get bail for her husband. Chandrasekhar reportedly persuaded Aditi to transfer money by impersonating a central government official over a spoof call while he was lodged in Rohini jail and promised to manage bail for her husband. Both Chandrasekhar and his actor wife Leena Maria Paul were arrested by the Delhi Police in September for their alleged role in the duping case. 

The Delhi Police has so far arrested 13 people in connection with the case. The ED suspects that Chandrasekhar had extorted money from several people while he was in jail. In October, the ED officials had conducted raids at Chandrashekhar's sea-facing bungalow in Chennai and had found a fleet of 16 luxury cars worth crores of rupees. At the time of the incident, Chandrashekhar was lodged in Delhi's Rohini jail and was running an extortion racket from behind the bars.

Also read: Jacqueline Fernandez stopped by ED at Mumbai airport from leaving India

In September, the ED had arrested two aides of jailed conman against whom the Delhi Police recently invoked stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Chandrasekhar was allegedly running the cheating and extortion racket in connivance with jail officials and some associates outside.

-with inputs from Atul Bhatia