The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached assets amounting to Rs 7.27 crore including fixed deposits worth Rs 7.12 crore of actor Jacqueline Fernandez under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case of conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar’s extortion syndicate.
Investigation by the 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 this modus operandi, the said person contacted Aditi Singh, wife of former Ranbaxy promoter 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 one year on the pretext of contribution to party funds.
Investigation revealed that the said person was conman 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 like a bungalow in Chennai, 26 cars, Indian currency and valuables worth Rs 45 crore were seized.
In this case, Chandrasekhar and eight other persons, including his wife Leena Maria Paul, were arrested under the PMLA and subsequently prosecution complaint (chargesheet) was filed before the Special PMLA court here against all the nine accused. The court has taken cognisance of the case.
The PMLA probe revealed that Chandrasekhar had given various gifts worth Rs 5.71 crore to Jacqueline from the “proceeds of crime”, including extortion, the ED said in a statement.
“Chandrasekha had put Pinky Irani, his longtime associate and co-accused in this case, to deliver the said gifts to Fernandez. In addition to these gifts, Chandrasekhar had also given funds to the tune of USD 1,72,913 and AUD 26,740 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,” it said.
Chandrasekhar had also delivered cash to the tune of Rs 15 lakh to a script writer on behalf of Fernandez as advance for writing a script of her web-series project. This cash amount has also been attached, it said, adding, investigation with regards to tracing the remaining proceeds of crime is in progress.