Rs 200-crore extortion case: Sukesh Chandrashekhar, Jacqueline Fernandez among 17 charged with money laundering

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday ordered the framing of charges against 17 accused, including alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar and actor Jacqueline Fernandez, in the alleged Rs 200-crore extortion and money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), paving the way for trial proceedings.The court said the accused "have to be charged with the offence (of money laundering) under Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, punishable under Section 4 of PMLA".Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Prashant Sharma said that "prima facie, there is sufficient material on record based upon which a strong suspicion is raised against all accused".Chandrashekhar was running an organised criminal network from inside jail and was impersonating senior government officials, including officers from the Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Law and Justice, according to the prosecution, as reported by PTI. He was arrested by the Delhi Police in 2017 and by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021.Complainant Aditi Singh and her family alleged that they were induced to part with huge sums of money through spoofed calls, encrypted applications and fabricated identities.The prosecution also alleged that the accused generated proceeds of crime of more than Rs 200 crore through extortion, cheating, impersonation and criminal intimidation. The money was later concealed, possessed, transferred, layered and projected as untainted property with the help of associates.According to ED, the proceeds of the crime were used to purchase properties, high-end luxury vehicles and expensive gifts. The agency also alleged that the funds were routed through various bank accounts, hawala channels, cash deliveries and shell entities.During the probe, searches were conducted at multiple locations and various incriminating materials were collected. The ED said statements of the accused and several witnesses were recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA.The agency said digital evidence, including mobile phones, WhatsApp chats, Telegram communications, spoofed call records, forensic extraction reports, banking transactions and cash movement details, was also collected.In its second supplementary complaint against Jacqueline Fernandez, the ED alleged that she was in constant touch with Chandrashekhar and had received valuable gifts from him through Pinky Irani.Besides Sukesh Chandrasekhar alias Sukash Chandrashekhar, the accused include his wife Leena Maria Paul alias Leena Paulose, Jacqueline Fernandez, Deepak Ramnani, Pradeep Ramdanee, B Mohanraj, Arun Muthu, D Kamlesh Kothari and Pinky Irani.The other accused are Pooja Singh, Dharam Singh Meena, Mahender Prasad Sundriyal, Sunder Bora, Komal Poddar, Jitender Narula, Avinash Kumar and Jai Prakash Singhal.